Middle Ground
by torinokomachi
Summary: Part of the Muse's Library series and Leopard's footprints to a bright path series. Reaching the top on your own felt completely empty. He learned it the hard way as he honed his quirk in an underground fighting ring. When heroes arrive when he's fourteen, he realized that it's time for Midoriya Izuku to come home, and time for the leopard to say goodbye. (A Quirk! Izuku fic)
1. 零

Discover

Izuku was four when he was told that he did have a quirk during a checkup with quirk counselors.

But it didn't manifest ever since the checkup that he lost hope.

However, it was far later that he tried to save a bullied boy from Kacchan and his so-called friends that he found a calling.

He was hurt hurt hurt but at that spur of a moment, he threw a punch that sent Kacchan all the way to a tree at the park.

The two other boys ran away at the impact and the fact that they saw him do the deed of punching Kacchan away.

He turns to the boy he saved and offered to get him home while also getting Kacchan back home.

It was when he finally rested in his room that he made the discovery that he had a quirk.

Thrill

Kacchan wasn't amused.

And so Kacchan fought with him again tomorrow and hurt him together with the two friends who follow him.

He did fight back thanks to his new found quirk.

He finds it oddly... thrilling at being able to fight back in a dire moment.

And he realized what he needed to do to improve his use of this quirk he had.

Worry

His mother didn't let him take martial art classes when he comes home too beaten up and banned him altogether out of fear and worry.

He can understand that. He was just insistent on enduring more pain from the regimen he was given of the karate class he was recently enrolled to.

But it give him a thought.

He needed a plan to utilize and learn about his quirk.

Plan

It wasn't easy. His mom would have been against this altogether but he needed to make this work and improve his quirk.

At the age of nine, he decided to run from home.

He did leave a letter which tells where he plans to go and promised to send letters of his well-being. (He didn't exactly tell everything about his plans in the letter but still)

He's sure mom would send a search party or something but if there's somewhere he can make sure he can utilize his new found quirk, it's somewhere underground.

It may mean being involved with villains but it's a risk he's willing to take.

Armed with the money he saved up, clothes, and some other things he prepared just in case, he left the household.

Freedom

It was odd and terrifying.

But exhilirating.

To be free.

Well, he had to keep his head down and hidden under the hood but it felt nice.

To be free from the stares of when he was quirkless.

To be regarded for being a kid.

And being free, in general.

Teacher

It took a week to find the place where the rumored underground ring is located, which was actually true.

For an underground fighting ring, the process of fighting is organized.

It was a surprise.

Since underground involves illegal things.

But he has enough morality to not go that way.

He was found by an old man who noticed his presence in this ring. Wondering why such a young boy is doing here.

Seeing that he took interest in fighting, the old man took him to where he lived and plans to teach Izuku boxing.

Phyrric

It had been fun learning under the man, whom he learns, is a former underground fighter long until he retired around the time All Might is said to have studied in U.A Academy. He never gave him his first name, just his surname, Ishikawa.

The man all but scolded him for running away from home. But since Izuku is stubborn, he convinced the man to not send him home yet. Knowing how his mother would react.

He did send occassional letters to his mother through his help and learned boxing under him but other wise, he doesn't really accept the man's offer of seeing his family or think of going back home anytime soon because he enjoys being here and wants to do more experiments about his quirk.

But when he was later crowned as the king of the underground ring under the nickname "Leopard" at the age twelve, the enjoyment gets lesser as his opponents grew predictable.

And it was that moment that he realized, how phyrric this whole situation of mastering his quirk was.

Because now that he mastered and know how his quirk works, there is only a gaping void in him.

Taking up the man's offer to seeing his family seems more appealing right now.

Family

The man just grumbled good naturedly at how long it took for him to accept. And let him meet the family.

His son, his daughter in law, and the man's three grandchildren (One of them being the same age as he is and the other two younger than them).

They all offered him to stay but he refused to impose, yet they insisted because they help the old man gain something to live for.

And hearing that he ran away from home, the family offered to give him books on lessons of the years he missed and apply an online course for middle school children seeing that he's now twelve.

He didn't exactly leave the underground ring yet, because something in him still compels him to stay active in that ring, but he now stayed with the old man's family.

It's months later, that he smiled for once in a while and remembering his mother, he finally called on phone.

The offer to stay in this man's home still stands even if one day, he has to return home but as far as he's concerned right now, he has two familes.

Cynical

There are unpleasant memories while he's here.

In this underground ring.

As his appearance grows lesser unless a challenger for him appears, under a simple guise, he starts to realize the more unpleasant side of people and humanity as he communicate with the spectators and fighters.

There are those who join and watch the ring because they are bored of their peaceful life.

There are those who join to earn some money and their work in public doesn't provide much for their needs.

There are those who wanted the glory of being the best fighter in the underground.

Quite a lot of sides to hear, really.

There are some he sympathize, and some he can't.

So at that moment, he realized that the way of the world isn't as easy as he think it would be.

Impact

At the same time, he realized how much of an impact he had made to these fighters and spectators as the "Leopard".

To these people, Leopard brought the idea that muscles meant nothing if they're just for show and you don't have the strength to back it up. As in the early days, he barely have much muscle which led to his opponents underestimating him.

To these people, Leopard is a symbol. That anyone can be a fighter.

To these people, Leopard becomes a foundation that keeps the underground ring strong.

If he leaves, then the underground ring would collapse and people will try and find where he is. Which is not a good sign. Because he knows that a good handful of them are part of several villain organizations and those of old, like the Yakuza and Mafia.

He had offers from the latter parties before but he declined, saying that he wants to stay in the ring longer.

That, and these organizations are influential to society even if they are diminishing from the world so if he leaves, they will do all they could to find him and take him back to the underground.

So he chose to stay for a little more. Waiting for the day he can finally be free.

Farewell

It was two years after he was officially crowned by the spectators and fighters as the king of the ring that heroes found the location of the underground ring he was in.

It was at a time he was challenged by a supposedly new challenger who turns out to be hero in training, Lemillion.

He accepts capture pretty easily, because he knows that this is one fight that he can't win.

As Lemillion's intangibility is effective against his quirk which requires physical contact.

The other fighters ran, but only he and a select few stay.

It's a farewell to the "Leopard".

Surprise

To say that the infamous legend, "Leopard", is a fourteen year old kid is a surprise to Nighteye and Mirio himself.

It's even more of a surprise when he's actually Midoriya Izuku who's been reported missing five years ago until some weeks later, the mother found a letter from him and called off the search, glad that her son is safe and alive.

Apparently, "safe and alive" didn't include being involved in an underground fighting ring. To which the boy clarified that he didn't tell everything about what he did while he was away to his mother.

By normal grounds, Midoriya Izuku would be arrested for illegal quirk use, but there's a catch... The boy is still a minor.

But it doesn't change the fact that the boy went against the law for it.

Another was that there had been no dead victims during fights against the "Leopard"... which would lighten the punishment the boy would face.

So Sir Nighteye decided to let Mirio handle interrogating the boy for why he is there while he contact principal Nedzu for advice in regards to the situation.

Interrogation

For a supposed convict, Leopard, or rather, Midoriya Izuku is surprisingly civil and answer most of Mirio's questions about the whole system of the underground fighting ring.

The boy then started mumbling about the quirk he has and mutters about ways to counteract intangibility.

"Midoriya-kun?"

The boy looked up. Rubbing his neck sheepishly. "Oh! Sorry about that, it's a habit of mine. I like analyzing quirks."

That caught his interest. "So you like hearing about quirks?"

"Ah yes! I was really interested in them and look for ways that they could be used to many situations! I did lots of research before and also think of ways to improve or fight against it depending on the situation-"

Mirio cleared his throat.

The boy looked sheepish. "I'm sorry about that, I'm pretty excited about the subject so I get off tangent sometimes..."

Mirio smiled good naturedly. "No problem. But I'm curious... what made you choose to go to an underground fighting ring at the age of nine?"

Midoriya Izuku went silent and smiled mirthlessly. "I discovered my quirk at the age of eight... I thought it didn't manifest but it's just that my quirk required a different situation to activate."

And thus he began explaining his quirk. An emitter type strength enhancing quirk. But it works only when the wielder is injured and it gets more powerful if the user gets more injuries. Reduced stamina also works for the quirk to activate.

Midoriya Izuku then got to talk to why he chose to ran away. "Mom doesn't really let me go for martial art classes when I got home too beaten up from one class and also because I used to get injured a lot from bullies who think I have no quirk. I do understand her reasons and I know she cares but... I had to do it to learn more about my quirk. So I made plans to run away. I did leave a letter and I found a man willing to help me out but I didn't stay with him and just looked around for things I could get through the money I earned from the ring."

Midoriya Izuku gave a bitter grin. "I was crowned the king of the ring at twelve and... it felt empty. I had to leave my mom and some of the people I used to fondly call friends who are actually bullies, for the sake of understanding my quirk and getting stronger. But it just... it didn't feel like it's much of an accomplishment when people I used to care for wouldn't be looking at my progress. So shortly after that, I took the offer of staying with the family of the man that taught me how to survive and fight in the underground."

Mirio noticed a look of fondness at his eyes. "The man's family had been warm and loving like mom did it felt like an extended family for me. There are unpleasant memories there, but not all of them are bad, I get to meet different kinds of people and see a different world from what I was accustomed to... it felt nice. To be able to see it all by myself. I wish I could have taken a different route but I didn't regret every second of it."

And that was the end of the interrogation.

Punishment

Due to his involvement in the ring and the use of quirk due to not having a lisence, Midoriya Izuku would have been sent to prison.

However, his status as a minor outweighs the punishment.

Though a week after the capture of "Leopard", an old man showed up in the office and used the money that Izuku had earned from the ring as payment to the fines but it turns out unnecessary as his punishment is officially decided.

Which, to the surprise of the man and Izuku himself, is pretty _light_.

The "Leopard"'s identity will not be disclosed to the public.

Midoriya Izuku is allowed to visit his host family and home, along with continuing his education online and having a normal life.

While allowed to do work outs and exercises, he has to follow the rule of not using his quirk in public unless it's for self defense.

In addition, he will be registered to U.A as form of parole asides for the purpose of his high school education and enters as a recommended student.

Lemillion will also be taking time to watch over and contact the boy of his activities once a week.

Izuku decided to still give some of the money that were originally for his fines anyway. For donation, he says.

He doesn't have much use for them asides giving half of each of the remainders to mom and the family that he had grown to love in the past five years.

Home

How long has it been since her son was home?

She still remember the day of his departure as clear as day. She panicked and called on the police for a search party until the letter came up.

She was reassured but still sad that he won't be coming home for a while as he wants to experiment using his quirk and found someone that becomes his sort of host family.

Until recently, she received a call from a hero agency regarding her son.

Her son is involved in an underground fighting ring.

Her baby.

She would have gone all the way to the agency if not for the fact that she heard her son on the phone and telling everything that he had been doing these past five years.

While what he told her are truths, it doesn't tell of the things he had been involved with.

And that fact made her feel a pang of pain at her chest.

That her son didn't truly tell her everything.

She wanted to scold him for ever doing something so dangerous.

But she couldn't. As she remembers some of the fond memories he has of these past five years.

Things hadn't been pleasant to her boy, but not everything is bad either.

Still, it pains her to see how much her son has grown without her being there, and for a moment, she felt like she's a bad mother.

Would he have stayed if she let him continue his martial art classes?

The thought had been coming up for a long while but it's too late to change that.

So now, she decided to do the best that she could do, provide a home that her son will return to.

Reunion

It was an awkward and tense affair.

For Midoriya Inko, it was seeing her son growing taller, lean, and looking rough on the edges. He was so different from the young boy he was back then but there's an air of confidence that he carried with him. Yet she wasn't there to see him grow. And it pained her once more at the thought that she wasn't there to see it.

For Midoriya Izuku, it was seeing his mother looking so tired and eyes brimmed red from crying that he felt like crying again for the first time in the five years.

But they could catch up.

"I'm home mom."

And his mother ran to him, hugging him tearfully. "Welcome back Izuku!"

Change

When Deku went missing, Bakugou was halfway between worried and glad. Glad that he wouldn't be humiliated anymore since the day Deku fought back and give him a really hard beating.

And worried, because Deku never came back.

And he reacted with anger like he usually does.

Don't get him wrong, Deku's not really a friend, but they're not really rivals either.

And that is what confused him to why he was worried about Deku being missing.

Was it because he actually did see Deku as a friend regardless?

Was he afraid that Deku was actually able to catch up to him?

Or was it something else?

Deku hasn't been the same since his quirk activated at the age of eight and he was so subdued and quiet, not following him as much till the day he left and disappeared.

He stopped thinking about it after a while and went on with life since it's confusing shit.

Until Deku returns to their neighbourhood five years later.

It was coincidental, really. He was walking home from school when he saw the mop of green hair running past him.

He turned, recognizing the hair and called out. "Hey Deku!"

Deku stopped and turned. Bakugou was silent, because the one in front of him is a far different person from the one he remembered in his memories.

Asides the confident air he got now, Deku just looked so rough and... Different? He doesn't know the word for it.

Deku had the gall to sigh at him. "I don't know if I should be flattered by that old nickname."

Of course he got furious. "That's the first fucking thing you said after five fucking years of disappearance!?"

Deku sound bored that it's so weird coming from the kid who used to be so meek. "I don't know, what was I supposed to say? "I'm back, Kacchan"? I'm pretty sure you don't miss me seeing I used to be a total nuisance to you when you got your quirk while I found out mine activated in a way different circumstances at the age of eight. I'm not sure if we're even actually friends anymore at this point."

He stopped. Because Deku has a point. Their friendship is so weird and twisted that it wasn't even an actual friendship anymore.

And wait... is it just him or did Deku sound way confident than he used to?

Deku exhaled a sigh, placing a hand at the back of his neck and moved it around, a light crack heard in the process.

"People change Bakugou. By the way, I'm taking online middle school courses so I'm not going to be seeing you too often. That's what you want for a long time after all, right? Me not being in the picture in your life."

Placing his hand down, he turned. "If you'd excuse me, I'm continuing my jog."

Bakugou can only watch as the boy's figure grow smaller in the distance before he went on his own way.

When he got home, he finally rationalized everything.

Everything about their supposed friendship changed and it's all fucked up. He wasn't sure if he could pick up the pieces to fix and make amends.

It's infuriating.

Normal

Daily life on parole was just... normal.

Wake up, do some homework online, talk with mom, jog or do some stretches and exercises, help mom, and many mundane things to do. Like chores.

He was really missing it. Being with mom and having just a normal life instead of the dark glory of the underworld.

But to add some flair, the Midoriya's and his sort of surrogate slash host family had weekly playdates and mom got along with the family swimmingly and adore the youngest child of the family so life isn't exactly boring.

Mirio dropped by at the Midoriya's household sometimes when U.A assignments don't make him too busy to the point of having to interact with phone calls.

Despite their first impressions, Izuku finds that Mirio is pretty fun. He has a nice sense of humor and friendly to boot.

He hasn't seen Bakugou since their tense reunion far too often except occasionally passing by each other.

He hardly see him as a friend anymore with the realization that what the blonde did would have been seen as bullying to everyone else and he felt much better about himself since he has no contact with Bakugou in the past five years.

He think back, that it's probably better this way for the both of them. Not being too involved with each other's lives.

Saved

Usually, he didn't need to be saved.

But this is not one of those days.

He was on an errand for groceries when someone with a slimy sludge like quirk had covered his mouth with sludge and implied on wanting to take over his body... which is gross.

Is this guy planning to be an Orochimaru? With all the take over your body speech and all. (He blamed the kids for forcing him to watch Anime with them)

He could fight back, but his power doesn't work too well with things like liquid or people with powers like Mirio's.

So he just wait for a while, for a chance (even when the experience in the underground dulled him of his idealism, his optimism still won out), but then he heard the familiar voice of his childhood idol. All Might.

Lonely

All Might had helped him with picking up the fallen groceries and was about to go but he called out. "Wait!"

"Yes, my boy?"

If he was who he was almost six years ago, he would have asked if he could be a hero regardless of circumstances, but he chose to ask a different question, something that had been on his mind long since the day he was crowned king of the ring.

"Is it lonely? Being a top hero I mean."

The underground is lonely, there was no one he is close enough with to cheer on him. Even the host family, despite their knowledge, prefer to stay away from it altogether due to the trouble it brings.

Even as a hero, would that loneliness be the same as the one he faced?

The hero seems to be caught off guard by the question. He answers, regardless.

"That is a difficult question my boy. If you want a perspective, it's true, that you often lose some people on the way to be the best, but you're not always alone. Why?"

The bulky man placed a hand at where his heart was. "Because I'm here, and the people who accompany and believe in me too, are here!"

All Might answered with such confidence that he couldn't help but believe in the hero.

Help

A little after the conversation, All Might went on his way and he too, was about to head home.

He would have, until he came across a commotion as he passed by the Tattooin district.

Letting curiosity win, he looked to see the Orochimaru wanna be free.

Didn't All Might caught him already?

He must have come across some accident so the wanna be managed to escape and is now keeping someone hostage... wait, is that Bakugou?

He went forward to get a closer look and... yep, it **is** Bakugou.

The wanna be must have escaped to where Bakugou was.

His eyes scanned around. Seems like the heroes can't move whether out of hesitance or fear. And he had to look at the heroes incredulously. Can't they just access the situation than worry about hurting the hostage? He saw the eye of the wanna be being pretty vulnerable, why didn't they just make use of that?

He groaned. Activating his quirk by punching on his own face thrice and rushed forward.

Ignoring the cries from the gathering mob and heroes.

And punched the eye.

The slime that covered Bakugou's mouth loosened it's hold. But not enough to let him free.

So he punched the eye two more times.

And Bakugou is finally free.

He did make sure that the strength he applied was enough to subdue the villain but won't kill him. He can punch some more if the villain actually stood up again but he doesn't want to kill, there are far too many unpleasant experiences where he almost killed his opponents in the fight underground and simply let them off with a grave but treatable injury. There is no mercy in the underworld, but it's a requiry in the world above the underworld. For, kindness, selflessness, and mercy are rare.

After coughing out for some air, Bakugou looked up at him. "What the hell Deku!? The fuck do you want!?"

'Explosive as always.' He shrugged. "I just happened to pass by and you seem like you needed a hand."

If there's one thing about him that never changed in the years, it's the fact that he would always help someone in need of it.

Heroic

The Orochimaru wanna be is still alive, but weak. All Might soon arrived and stopped the villain before he could do anything.

All Might is surrounded by reporters while Bakugou is surrounded with praises by heroes.

Izuku, meanwhile, was scolded, at first.

"Running head on is reckless kid. But I got to admit, that was quick thinking, punching the eye there."

"Oh yeah, what's with the quirk? You'd make a fine hero if you keep going at your pace kid."

He excused himself by saying that he had groceries to worry of after answering some of their questions and the heroes let him go.

But it warmed his heart.

That he can be a hero, his long childhood dream.

Impression

All Might had run over to find that green haired boy as soon as he had finished talking to the reporters.

While he seemed like a fan at first from the delight at seeing him, it soon changed when the boy asked.

" _Is it lonely? Being a top hero I mean."_

Of course he was caught off guard, because he didn't expect this kind of question from the people.

And he thought back to his predecessor, Nana, his teacher, Gran Torino, and his colleagues.

Some were lost, some stayed, and while it's true, there's a feeling of loneliness as he looked back, but he thinks back to the good memories and decided on the answer, that while he maybe lonely, he's not entirely alone.

They soon went their way but he reached his limit moments before he landed on the roof perfectly and thus the bottle containing the sludge villain was lost and he looked at horror as he saw the villain active again at a district.

He had reached his limit and had to quitely blend in with the crowd and waited for reinforcements.

Such a coward he is.

It colored him surprise when he finds the same green haired boy once more running to the fray as he hears the crowd calling out to him, he saw the boy's quirk activating and punched the eye of the villain, setting the hostage free.

The boy's words left an impact on him.

" _I just happened to pass by and you seem like you needed a hand."_

The boy has a heart of a true hero. And soon he sprung to action, seeing the villain is about to take action once more.

Being a top hero, he is surrounded by reporters after the incident is over, so he was glad that it was all done and soon ran to where the boy was.

He was in luck, as he found him in a neighborhood.

"I am here!"

Successor

All Might was in front of him and then all of the sudden, he coughed blood as soon as Izuku asked why he was here and in All Might's place, was a lanky, thin, sickly looking guy that looked like a thug in first glance.

The atmosphere just turned awkward.

And so he came up with an idea. "Do you mind if I invite you over to my house? You seem to want to talk about something private and neighbors might be around and hear you. Might as well get you treated for... whatever injury you have."

All Might shook his head. "No need boy, I'll make it brief. I sustained an injury five years ago that left me a limited time to do heroics. But that's not what I'm here for. I'm afraid I didn't ask for your name earlier."

"It's Midoriya Izuku sir."

"Young Midoriya then, I was among the crowd when the villain kept your friend captive and I was ashamedto say that I did not preach what I encourage many young children to do, that a hero is to be selfless. You, young man, had helped that friend of yours regardless of the hostility you both may have."

"Uh... All Might?"

He's nervous, what would All Might want to say? What purpose does he have to come see him?

He had to be doubting people sometimes, the underground isn't filled with pleasant people. But the man's body language had been truthful and sincere.

"With that, I regarded that you are a true hero, and so I request, would you be able to be the next bearer and inherit my quirk?"

.

.

.

.

.

Izuku blinked twice. "Uh... am I hearing that right? Wait, is it even possible to have a quirk that can be inheritted!?"

All Might soon began an explanation of his quirk, One For All, an amalgamation of power that is transferred from one user to another like a stockpile. The further in to the numbers, the stronger the power.

This... is a lot to take in.

"I've been looking for a suitable successor lately but none of them shined as bright as you do young man!"

"But still... me?"

"Yes. You. But hey, it's still your decision to make, what do you say?"

He hummed in thought. And spoke up. "I'm not sure... this just seemed all too sudden... I probably would need time to think usually but..."

Izuku looked at the hero, a resolve flaring at his eyes. "Having two quirks is just a small price to pay. I guess. And so I humbly accept your request, by being your successor."

This seems to be off on a good start.

Reason

Since he was already building up strength with the nature of his original quirk along with his body, All Might was able to let him inherit the quirk fast. It's... weird to say the least. (His poor poor tastebuds...)

So now they are in a junk filled beach, practicing use of One For All while keeping it separate from his original quirk.

"Uh, All Might? Why this beach specifically?"

"Because these junk can be used for a fine practice make shift dumbel young Midoriya! And I found this area from the internet and it's left to rot for years."

"Hmm... so we take advantage of the dumping by making use of it as part of training?"

"You caught on my boy!" All Might laughed boisterously.

"I can work with this then." The young boy grinned and started doing his work.

It's been doing well, trying to analyze how much power he would need to utilize One For All and All Might was right, these junk makes good weight training.

When he took a break, All Might called. "Young Midoriya."

"Yes?"

"Do you remember the question you asked me before? About whether it felt lonely being a top hero?"

...Oh. He gave a slow nod to the hero.

"Now that I have known you in person, I have to ask, what compelled you to ask such question?"

Well... he supposed he should tell. It's fair, considering that All Might let him in on the secret that he has a time limit for using his quirk.

"Well... it's a long story. But can you promise not to tell anyone unless I can trust them? It just seem fair."

All Might nodded.

And so Izuku told him everything. Starting from the moment his quirk manifested to the day he ran away from home and winding up in an underground fighting ring.

Seeing All Might's surprise, Izuku rubbed the back of his neck, smiling sheepishly. "Yeah it's kind of stupid but... it's a risk I was willing to take back then. I was in luck though, I met an old man who taught me boxing and the ways to survive the underground, no one finds out the truth about me because my appearance is hidden under a hood jacket that was gifted to me. I didn't really come home yet because it was still not enough for me... by twelve, I mastered my quirk and won the title of king of the underground. It felt... empty."

Izuku continued. "I still stayed around for a bit because of organizations like the Yakuza would have tried to call a hunt to look for me and months back, I was finally able to escape through capture by the heroes... I was expecting a heavy punishment but I got off too lightly since I was a minor and a catch is that while allowed to live as a civilian, I'm on parole at U.A for my high school education."

Izuku hung his head up and lied on his back at the sand. "In between the months of returning to living as a civilian and meeting you, I was revisiting some of the old things I had in life, I used to be a really big fan of you, you know? But with everything I faced right down there... I had started to think, would All Might have felt the same on the way to be a top hero? Would he have been pressured? Or any kind of thoughts that would have pressured him at all? So at that point... I'm starting to see you not as a hero, but as a person whom I've yet to personally meet and still idolize. So there you have it."

He noticed All Might had been silent as he confessed.

"Midoriya my boy."

"Hm?"

"You may have made bad decisions in the past, and I can now see why you feel that way and ask that question yesterday. But still, I respect the fact that regardless of that, you still have the heart of a hero."

All Might hovered above him in his true form, smiling. "So I thank you for being honest with me, and trusting me about your past. Life can be a strange thing young Midoriya, but right now, you're not alone anymore, are you?"

Izuku soon fondly remember the surrogate host family that he had spent time with and his mother.

"No, I'm not so lonely anymore."

* * *

 _Data acquired._

Midoriya Izuku

Age: 15

Quirk: Enmity

Enmity is an emitter strength enhancing quirk that gets stronger the more injuries the user received from their opponents or self-inflicted.

* * *

 **From AO3 and posted here, and I've been into Boku no Hero Academia as of late. Due to word limit, the summary here is more condensed than the AO3 link.**

 **This Izuku's quirk is inspired by Granblue Fantasy's Ayer. Who is infamously known as Enmity king. Enmity is one of the weapon skills in the Granblue Fantasy game. If you actually look for him, you'd realize that his story borrows a lot from the movie, The Fight Club. But the split personality problem doesn't exist for Izuku so he's still the cinnamon roll that everyone loves.**

 **If you have to imagine the sound of a more confident Izuku, think Sakuma Ritsu from Ensemble Stars, a character that Izuku's Japanese VA did a voice of. And switch "Boku" to "Ore", which is a far confident self-honoriffic for boys. He honestly can't stay calling himself "Boku" forever with his experiences.**

 **Also the thing with Mirio, I hope I don't make him too OOC but then again, he is interrogating Izuku...**

 **I'm not really sure what to write about Bakugou to be honest. He's a really hard character to write (Well, there's also KHR's Hibari but I find it easier to guess at least part of Hibari's reasoning and thoughts). I don't want to bash him but he deserves getting some karma for all the bullying he did to Izuku. So I took with what I could understand of his character, which led to this. So forgive me if he gets too OOC.**

 **Honestly, I originally didn't want this Izuku to inherit One For All because Enmity is pretty game breaking with the right armor, especially in Granblue Fantasy.**

 **But I think back that there's a limit to how much injuries Izuku can get before people start worrying about him due to the requirement to activate his quirk so I had chosen to let him inherit One For All.**

 **I can go all the way to the sports festival but I had to stop before I actually go further with this idea so this ends at the moment before the entrance exam. Might make a second part of this idea because I have too much planning for it.**

 **\- torinokomachi**


	2. Uno

**Firstly, thank you for the reviews, follows and favorites! I honestly wasn't expecting much support for Middle Ground but still, thank you!**

 **Now onward to the story!**

* * *

Passing time

Mom and the Ishikawa's didn't know about his meeting with All Might and he plans to keep it that way for a while.

Mirio still visits and he asked, in one visit, if he can actually join the entrance examination that most students enter despite being a recommended student, since he prefers going in fair and square than through recommendation, another reason being that he wanted to experience actually participating in the exam on his own eyes.

Mirio took to talking to the principal who gave the okay even though he would still be considered a reccomended student.

After the incident, he and Bakugou ended up coincidentally meeting more than once.

From grocery shopping, jogging, train rides to visit the Ishikawa's, and a few coincidences that he can't remember.

And often times, with some of his school mates.

It's official that the kids who used to be at the same grade as him in elementary school know of his return, but since the time he first activated his quirk, the bullying grew lesser till the day he left the neighborhood. That, and they don't approach him even if they saw him.

He recognize some of the old faces he often saw in his old school but they don't recognize him.

Something he is grateful for, because if they don't remember him, then it's best he pretend as if he doesn't remember them at all.

No need to bring back something that has long laid down.

Other than that, the passing months before the entrance exam went by smoothly.

Problem

Of course, it is not without a problem.

It comes from the training he had under All Might.

The first time he activated One For All, he broke some bones and so he had to take a visit to U.A to find Recovery Girl.

The sound of broken bones is scary, but he's used to even worse pain. Not to the point of getting broken bones but still, ouch.

It was at this same day that he also met Principal Nedzu in person, whose a... mouse, bear, badger person.

Principal Nedzu and Recovery Girl found out about the fact that he is inheriting One For All at the same day.

And he was questioned. "Midoriya-kun, is there a specific reason why you accept inheriting One For All? It's not that I am against it, but I want to hear you personally."

Midoriya answers. "To be honest, I had no intention of inheriting it at first. Mostly because of the nature of my very own quirk, Enmity. I was actually content with what I got despite conditions needed to activate it. But with everything that I faced in the underworld... my quirk only reminded me of everything that happened down there. Mastering the quirk just made me feel hollow. My alias, Leopard, and my quirk is a part of me as much as I am myself... but Leopard will never be perceived as anything but the king of the underground ring. It's a title that I never wanted to have. I'm not even a king..."

The problem of being the best is that most of the time, people find it hard to connect to you as a person and see you for what you have done and achieved.

He is not seen as the aggravating challenger when he is crowned king, he is seen as the champion and strongest. He is known as "Leopard". Not Midoriya Izuku.

"So during that day, I decided on my own, that I want to be seen as for who I am. Not as Leopard, but as Midoriya Izuku."

He admitted the next part with a sheepish nervous grin. "Besides that... All Might seems like he really needed me to be his successor and I can't help but agree."

It seems like a silly reason, but he can't really leave people in need of help be. Even if they aren't the most grateful person.

The principal seems to have taken his answer well and walked over to All Might. "You picked a good successor my friend. Despite what happened in his past, he still has a good heart."

"Thank you, and that, I can concur."

They have to visit Recovery Girl occasionally anyways until one training incident that results in more than just having broken fingers had them temporarily banned from the infirmary.

Dance

When he's a kid, observing heroes and quirks is something that he liked to do and is sort of his hobby.

While he still had that passion, it's less so than he used to and with the lack of notes to keep during the past five-six years, he eventually kept his personal observations on his mind until he came back home.

But if there's a new hobby that he took up other than this, and gaming, courtesy of the Ishikawa children, it's dancing.

So when he's free from training, chores, and online homework, he danced.

He had to take out some of his old All Might stuff to the storage room or sell them out to people who want it but in the end, it was worth it.

It started when he was learning boxing that there are different martial art styles. And Capoeira caught his attention because it's almost like dancing.

He did a lot of research about things he got interested in since he started staying with the Ishikawa's at twelve and took some liking to hip-hop and break dancing.

Plus, it's a nice and fun way to keep him fit other than doing jogs, stretches and some boxing routines.

Dancing, for him, is a lot like fighting. You just need to find a perfect rhythm and beat to catch people's attention, or catch them off guard.

In a fight, you read on their pattern and rhythm of attacking and turn their rhythm back on them.

It's why he liked dancing as a hobby and as a knowledge to fight.

And so with one more day left before the entrance exam, he danced for the first time in a while since training with All Might took a toll on his stamina.

It felt refreshing.

Entrance

Wearing just his favorite combo of comfy clothes, a hoodie jacket with a shirt underneath and pants, along with his bag, he looked at the gate of U.A academy. Arriving just thirty minutes before the gates close because he wants to take his time.

Mom and the Ishikawa's keep saying that there's no need for him to join the entrance exam due to being recommended due to his circumstances but he still wanted to be here. To experience it all.

And so he walked in his first step.

Except, he was shoved to the side, and there was a familiar growl.

"The fuck are you doing here Deku!?"

Izuku looked at Bakugou and just... blinked at him. Tilting his head to the side. "Am I not supposed to be here?"

Bakugou fumed. "You wanna have a go y-"

"You're not the dictator of my life, _Kacchan_."

He stopped calling Bakugou "Kacchan" long ago, but will call the explosive boy by that name just for kicks and sarcasm. And he doesn't even have much fear on the ash blonde anymore. (The name Kacchan sounds like calling someone a mom so there's that)

Besides, if Bakugou's not even going to listen to him by much, then he's not going to listen to Bakugou either.

The first ever time he ever expressed his current thoughts about Bakugou was during their tense reunion just last year and just recently.

He had to admit they're both to blame. Bakugou, for not even wanting to listen. And him, for not having much of a spine to actually get him to listen to him for once before their friendship goes awry.

In a way, he was sort of happy for being away from Bakugou for five-six years. Now he had enough backbone to get Bakugou to listen for a bit and he plans to keep it that way until the day Bakugou is not spouting explosive anger and actually expressed his thoughts.

Bakugou grew even more angrier and sparks form at his hands. He would've attacked, but stopped when he heard whispers among the participants.

"Hey isn't that Bakugou Katsuki from the incident last year?"

"I think it is..."

Bakugou clicked his tongue and went on his merry way.

Izuku stood and adjusted the hood that he kept up.

Someone called him, and he turned to see a brown haired girl with a round face. "Hey there!"

"Oh, hello." He greeted back.

"Say why aren't you on an uniform?" She asked.

He replied. "Ah, I've been joining online classes since middle school so I was given a pass for not wearing it."

Not a lie, but not the truth either.

The girl nodded in understanding. "Oh! By the way, are you joining the entrance exam for the heroics department?"

Izuku nodded. The girl smiled. "Well, good luck to the both of us then!"

"Good luck to you too."

The girl waved and entered the building. Izuku following suit shortly after the girl walked a few steps into the building, a thin smile curved at his lips.

It was good to know that there are still good people out there in this world. Discounting those that he have met and be close enough on a personal basis.

Exam

Izuku kept his silence as he listens to Present Mic's explanation about the examination. Practicals first, written test later, or so he heard.

He just fiddled on the bandages at his hand.

He started wearing them since that one training incident which got him and All Might temporarily banned from U.A's infirmary since his left hand started to scar and almost disfigured from the damage and Recovery Girl insisted to keep it that way as a reminder.

He didn't object.

Bandages make nice makeshift boxing gloves anyways. And he wears them a lot in the days down the underground so it's comforting.

After that incident, he and All Might are on the consensus on not using One For All far too much while still allowed to practice it to come up with ways to utilize it. And since he already has a quirk, it's easier to mask and hide the fact that he inherited One For All, so he is now back to using Enmity.

Present Mic later gives everyone an assigned block for the exam later. He looked at his, and then looked at the other participants in the room.

There was one participant that caught his eye, however. One that looked like he is resigned to a certain fate.

That, and the guy looked like he hadn't sleeped in ages.

As everyone later went to the changing rooms to get changed for the exams, he approached the participant before the room completely dispersed.

"Hey."

Resolve

Shinsou didn't know what to expect when this green haired guy came talking to him. But he greeted him back. "Hey yourself."

"You look so depressed. Why?"

...Okay. This guy is too observant it's sort of creepy and horrifying. "Because... I don't think I can pass this practical."

"Why do you think so?"

"My quirk isn't suited for this."

The kid went silent, and asked. "Do you want to be a hero?"

This, he answered immediately. "Yes of cour-"

"If you want to be a hero, then why aren't you even trying?"

Okay, that's it, it hit a nerve. "What do you know!? Most of you seem to have a perfect quirk to fight while mine isn't even suitable for combat!"

The green haired guy just raised his eyebrow at him with an incredulous expression. "Not all quirks are perfect, but are you seriously thinking that you can't pass just because of that? Being a hero doesn't always mean you have to be good at fighting. Can't you think out of the box? This is a hero school, so other than fighting, you're also expected to help and save people!"

Shinsou went silent as the guy's point hit his mind like a brick.

Save people?

Really?

"Yes really. Also, your expression says it all." He stated flatly. Continuing. "Having combative quirks isn't always great you know. Mine is risky, a strength enhancement quirk that gets stronger the more injuries I receive, but I still make the best of it, if I can make the best of my quirk by being a hero, then so can you. Stop being mopey and negative now, will you?"

"I... alright... I'll try..."

At that, he smiled. "That's the spirit. Uh..."

"Shinsou. Shinsou Hitoshi."

"Midoriya Izuku. Good luck to both of us, yeah?"

Shinsou nodded and Midoriya left the room.

Shinsou thought back to Midoriya's words, smiling with a brim of positivity.

They're almost alike, he thinks, he's always thought to be a villain because of his quirk by everyone around him, while Midoriya's quirk requires the boy himself to be placed in risky situations for it to activate.

But Midoriya is so optimistic when compared to him, that it made him see Midoriya in a far different light from his first impression of him.

And now he made up his mind.

He's going to be a hero.

Injury

When the practicals started, he went running with taking the attack meant for other participants first. A few hits to himself and then he punched it before he starts moving to find more robots to punch.

Many people would think that he has a death wish with this kind of action, but this is an easier way to activate his main quirk... if it's against a person, he'd need to taunt them to gaud them to hurt him, however.

He stopped himself once he felt like he got enough points from the robots and just run around to see participants who would be his potential classmates.

He recognized the nice brown haired girl that greeted him earlier.

As he was about to approach her, someone called. "You there!"

He turned, a tall bulky boy with glasses looking at him a good distance away. "Yes?"

"How could you get these much injuries and still be able to move!?" His hands motioned as he spoke, pointing at the injuries he received... bruised arms and body, legs are generally fine, but he's sure his head started bleeding from some of the painful but not the point of concussion head injuries he got. Because he felt his head throb from the dulling pain.

To be frank, he's used to having worse injuries back in the underworld that these look _tame_ in comparison.

He shrugged. "I have high pain tolerance."

"That is no excuse! This maybe an exam but please, do not be reckless to the point of endangering yourself my fellow participant!"

...Well, that's a first. "It's alright really-"

There was rumbling, and a giant robot that fits the criteria of the spoken Zero pointer robot started moving.

The other participants are all stuck at where they are standing in fear, but he started to move.

Seeing that there are several participants that are close enough to the zero pointer bot.

Rescue

Iida Tenya wasn't able to call out the injured green haired boy to stop being reckless as he moved.

He was truly worried since he caught glimpses of the boy injuring himself trying to defeat the villain robots.

Yet this boy still managed to keep moving despite the injuries.

Why?

Those injuries, while not too fatal, would have put the boy out of commission sooner and so he approached him out of good will and worry.

But hearing the boy's dismissal at those injuries made him feel anxious on his behalf. What happened to him that he had grown so desensitized and numb to his own pain?

While his attempt to look strong in the midst of peril is admirable, but it won't mean anything if he died on duty. And that also made him angry. Angry that this reckless green haired boy would have made people worry for him due to his actions.

That worry was all gone when he saw the boy moving in front of some of the participants close and punched the arm of the bot.

Destroying it while the participants run away, under the boy's order.

However, one participant wasn't able to escape fast, falling as she tripped on a rubble caused by the robot's attack, and so the boy acted.

He ran under the robot and raised his arm for an uppercut.

An uppercut that utterly decimated the robot.

The pieces and parts of the robot started falling around in random places from the impact, the reckless boy stood still until it all landed to the ground.

Slowly, he went over to where the girl had been. Showing his hand at her.

"Are you okay?"

The girl was about to nod before her breath hitched at the sight of his injuries. "Y- you're bleeding and badly hurt!"

"Oh, this? It's nothing, but can you stand?"

The girl feebly nodded and took his hand, standing up.

It was at that time, that Present Mic's voice boomed in, signalling the end of the practical exams. And the boy collapsed, prompting himself to use his quirk to rush over to where he was before he completely fall to hard concrete.

He caught the fallen boy just in time.

"Hey! Are you alright!?" He shook the boy's shoulders. He observed that the boy's chest is still rising.

He's still breathing, to his relief, but unconcious, likely from the injuries he had succumb to.

Recovery Girl arrives soon after, asking if anyone's injured and started treating the boy's injuries in the form of first aid and brought a stretcher to let him rest for the time being and treating the rest of his injuries.

He then hears whispers. Of how the boy has an amazing quirk despite being so reckless.

But he digresses their points. This boy just saved his peers, why are they talking about what quirk he has-

Oh.

Could it be, that saving others is a part of the exam too?

Maybe this boy isn't so reckless as he thought, since he also focused on keeping the participants safe despite getting those injuries in the process.

Friend

He was let off free since injuries he had taken for his original quirk are faster and way more tolerable to heal than broken bones caused by using One For All. But he still got scolded, because, in Recovery Girl's words. "There's only so much injuries you can take before it turns fatal! You're lucky you didn't get a concussion!"

But he's still allowed to take part on the written exam which he had passed easily.

When everyone's done, he was about to leave. Until he was approached by the same glasses wearing tall boy.

"There you are! May I ask if your injuries are alright?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, they're okay. Nothing a good rest can't heal."

"But still, that was a very reckless move you did. Injuring yourself."

Izuku find it funny that his hands motioned unconciously as he talked. "I'm used to it. It's kind of a requirement for my quirk."

That caught the boy's attention. "Y- your quirk?"

He nodded. "To sum it short, I get more strength the more injuries I got."

To say that the tall glasses wearing boy was surprised was putting it lightly. "M- my word... such a risky quirk! Like a double-edged sword!"

He shrugged. "I just make the best of it."

"Even so! You need to take care of yourself too! You just passed out from those injuries in the practicals!"

He gave a nervous grin. "Thanks for the concern but... I'm really used to it."

The boy grumbled but accepted his reason, seeing that he wasn't going to budge. "Alright, but still. Take care of yourself more, alright?"

Izuku nodded.

"Oh, I almost forgot to introduce myself, I'm Iida Tenya. You are?"

"Midoriya Izuku."

They walked out together and became fast friends as the conversation continues.

Acceptance

A letter from U.A arrived a week after the exam.

He was accepted either ways, but he promised he's going to open it together with Iida.

He did tell Iida of his status as a recommended student that personally wanted to take the entrance exam like everyone else. Iida take it to stride, and he quote. "Such humility!"

His phone rang, and he sees that it's from Iida and the message is on RIME.

 _Iida Tenya: I have opened the letter!_

 _Iida Tenya: I have been accepted to the Heroics Department!_

 _Midoriya Izuku: Congratulations Iida!_

 _Iida Tenya: Thank you. Now have you opened your letter, Midoriya-kun?_

 _Midoriya Izuku: Not yet. I'm opening it soon._

 _Iida Tenya: Then best of luck to you!_

Izuku locked the screen and went on to pick up his letter.

The letter showed a hologram of All Might in his muscled glory.

" _Young Midoriya! You may be wondering why are you getting this letter even though you could still get in through recommendations, yes? It's mostly about your results at the examination my boy! You did culminate several villain points during the practicals and while enough, the judges think that most of your actions are reckless. But that's where this comes in. What, you may ask? Wait and see!"_

The camera shifts to All Might's right. A screen pops up. Showing a video.

" _These are the footages we received of the practical exams. While you have taken to injure yourself during the test to make use of your quirk, the judges also noticed that most of the villain bots you're attacking are originally aimed at several participants who are caught off guard. And you made a lasting impression to the participants nearby the zero point villain robot! One of them even asked Present Mic after the exam to give you another chance! Therefore!"_

The screen switched to a list. His name was placed first.

" _Midoriya Izuku! You earn 40 villain points and 80 rescue points! Congratulations for your acceptance and welcome to U.A!"_

When he heard that, his lips parted and formed a wide smile.

Costume

Ah, hero gears.

A costume requirement for people in heroics.

And since there's still time till April, he decided to deal with it early than procrastinating.

So far, he can only think up of two alternatives.

One is a green suit with a mask, white gloves, a belt with small pocket bags, a pair of knee guards and elbow guards, and red shoes.

The second and last was... based on what he wore during the fights of the underground fighting ring.

Sleeveless hood jacket in an attempt to have opponents underestimate him, a mask to hide his full face, a plain sleeveless shirt, bandages around his hands as a makeshift boxing glove, and plain black pants.

Now he's considering which of the two he would choose.

When he first designed the first one, he realized the design looked almost like All Might and changed it to a more tame design. But he isn't sure if he would like it.

The second one... while he felt more comfortable wearing it due to having it on for most of the time in the past six years, it just reminded him more of the underground days.

" _Don't touch me you monster!"_

" _Mercy doesn't even exist in the underworld. Save it for someone else, will you?"_

" _Leopard is all the way at the top, he's not going to sympathize us low fighters."_

There was a knock. "Izuku? Dinner is ready!"

He looked up from the table and turned to the door. "Coming!"

He opened the door, greeted by mom.

Dinner was quiet, but peaceful. Then mom spoke up. "Izuku, I saw some glimpse of your planned design..."

"Yes? What do you think, mom?"

"Well... Give me a moment, wait here."

Mom left and come back in a little while. In her hand was a costume held on both hands-

Wait a minute.

"You seem to be confused with picking the two designs the last few days of designing so I decided to combine both."

It is.

A sleeveless hood jacket with a green sleeveless shirt, and black pants.

"Ah, for the accessories, the elbow and knee guards will come by later along with the pocket bag belt. You already have bandages and the mouth mask will come by at the same time as the elbow and knee guards!"

"Mom..."

"Izuku... you've told me so much and I know some things that happened in the past five years have some scars... and now you're a hero like you always wanted as a child despite that... it makes me feel proud as a mother... I'm sorry if I wasn't such a good mother before..."

"Mom... you already are."

"Izuku...?"

He stood from the chair and walked to where mom was standing. "If there is one thing that still kept me going asides the Ishikawa's back then... it's you mom. You've done so much for me and still accepted me even after my screw up. Sometimes, I don't think I deserve you at all... but still, thank you mom. For the clothes and everything."

Mom smiled tearfully. "There's no need to thank me, family accepts each other Izuku."

* * *

 **I've officially decided to give the surrogate family a surname, because I can't keep calling them by surrogate family forever.**

 **As a person who studied Japanese, I find the nickname Kacchan almost funny cause it sounded like "Kaa-san" and "Kaa-chan". Both words being synonyms to "Mother" in Japanese. ("Kaa-san" sounds more polite than "Kaa-chan" to my knowledge)**

 **Shinsou was said to have applied for heroics as well as the general department, so my take is that he entered heroics first, but quitted and went for the general departments test when he hears the briefing of the practical examination. I could be wrong though.**

 **RIME is a bland name product of LINE, an actual social media chatting account. It's mostly used and pretty popular in Asian countries. Especially in Japan. I don't live in Japan, but I live in an Asian country where people having a LINE app is common.**

 **The things in chapter 117-120 of the manga got me thinking that a lot of the deterioration of their friendship is mostly because of poor communication problems with Deku (Forgive my inconcistency as I switch between calling him Izuku and Deku in these notes) and Bakugou in canon.**

 **Deku wanted to speak out, but Bakugou refused to listen, and because of that, they never spoke out their thoughts to each other even once. Hence the dynamic of this Izuku and Bakugou.**

 **Also, I don't plan on having this Izuku master One For All too fast, I want his growth to be in a reasonable pace.**

 **\- torinokomachi**


	3. สอง

Late

First day and he's almost late to his class.

He's too used to getting up later since he took up an online course.

He relaxed once he found that he has some time to spare before the opening ceremony.

He found his class, 1-A after some searching and opened the door.

Iida was bickering with Bakugou, whom he noticed, is in this class too.

The rest of the students are minding their own business but his eyes lit up when he saw a certain insomniac.

"Shinsou! You made it!"

Well, he's probably jumping but he was just happy that his advice had been working and Shinsou made it here.

He's actually kind of mad at the social stigma the civilization of quirks give to society. Quirkless people are alienated and considered almost disabled, those with quirks that seem bad are considered villains. It's just unfair.

Why does society have to judge people based on their quirks?

Shinsou was surprised at his call but greeted him anyway. "Oh hey, Midoriya. And yeah I did. It was a surprise but... I'm really here."

"This is kind of suddent but what's your quirk? I never got to know it." Izuku asked, ignoring the screams of a certain explosive boy.

"If you don't mind... it's brainwashing."

"Brainwashing? That's pretty effective on field you know."

"Are you even listening to me Deku!?"

"Oh, hello Bakugou." He nonchalantly greeted and continued talking to Shinsou. "Anyway, you can really go for interrogation and it's good for information gathering! You can get enemies to reveal information to you without them knowing what you did! Oh! It can also work in a rescue situation too now that I think of it, you can use it to get the civilians to calm down and follow along the orders to get them safe."

"Well, I never considered that. But those seem like viable ideas. Though I already see the merit of using my quirk for the last point there."

"Don't you fucking ignore me-"

"I'm not ignoring you, you're just being rude. Ask nicely and maybe I'll give you some attention, _Kacchan_."

"Why y-"

He was expecting Bakugou to explode when Shinsou drawled. "Hey _Kacchan_."

"The fuc-"

Bakugou went still. Shinsou commanded. "Go back to your seat and calm down."

Bakugou blankly followed the command.

Izuku looked back at Shinsou. Blinking, and then just nod. "Oh, thanks! That works too."

Shinsou seemed surprised at the statement. "You're not scared?"

He shrugged. "Why would I? A quirk is just a quirk regardless of it's abilities. It depends on how people want to use it. Besides, that's already heroic enough. Stopping an aggressive person to stop attacking someone. "

Iida now approached him and Shinsou. "I must agree with Midoriya-kun! Forgive me for prying, but I agree that what you have done is certainly heroic! Nothing to be afraid of!"

A group of their classmates soon started gathering around the three of them and went talking.

"Had to listen in but that was awesome! Stopping that guy from literally exploding!"

"Yeah that was ripping!"

He can see that Shinsou was overwhelmed by it all. Izuku only gave the insomniac a smile.

Izuku left the forming crowd to give Shinsou some time to be acquainted with the rest of the class.

Then he saw the nice girl from the exam looking at him and he noticed her eyes lit up.

"Ah! You're here!"

Present

Uraraka Ochako was very happy when she caught eye of her savior in her new class.

The boy with bandaged hands, sort of plain look with a messy green mop of a hair.

She never get to learn his name at all back then. Which left her quite ashamed by the end of the day because she know what kind of person he is but not his name.

She was doing quite well enough until the zero pointer bot showed up.

She was afraid, what should she do?

She was shook out of her fear when she heard the boy shout at the participants nearby.

"Run now before it attacks again!"

They all obliged, but she failed to escape on time.

She tripped on a rubble that was caused by the zero pointer's attack earlier and at the next moment, it was raining robots.

Robot parts to be exact.

When the parts soon settled on the ground, her eyes saw a hand.

"Are you okay?"

She was about to nod when she looked at him, seeing the injuries he had obtained and the blood flowing out of his forehead. Her breath hitched at the sight of it. "Y- you're bleeding and badly hurt!"

The boy just waved it off with a smile. "Oh, this? It's nothing, but can you stand?"

She feebly nodded and stood up with his help.

It was then that Present Mic's voice rang around the field and she was sure she heard the boy mumble. "Oh it's over... oh well..."

And he fell to the ground, caught by a guy with glasses who used his quirk to catch the boy and started shaking his shoulder's.

He's still alive, thankfully. To her relief and the glassses guy's.

She stood silent as Recovery Girl carried him away but her mind went thinking of his final words before he passed out.

How many points did he get? Did he get any at all? If he didn't then did he just sacrificed his attempt on getting points to save her and the other participants?

So that led her to meeting Present Mic after the written exams are over, asking if she could ask for a request to give this boy another chance to take the exam or take some of her points because she's truly indebted to him for his heroism.

Present Mic rejected but also said not to worry because he'll make it in regardless of what he did.

Which gave her a sense of relief, but also doubt because she wasn't sure how much of it was the truth.

So she was really happy to see him in her class. Arriving at the time this explosive hot head blonde boy called him Deku and watch the rather hilarious banter between them.

"You made it just like Present Mic said you would!"

That seemed to catch his surprise, as he part his mouth wide before speaking. "Wait... you're the one that requested Present Mic to give me another chance?"

She nodded. "Yeah, you seem pretty nice and cool! Also, thanks for saving me back then!"

"Ah, no problem!"

Then a voice interrupted them.

Bystander

Aizawa Shouta broke the friendly atmosphere as he introduced himself as their homeroom teacher and gauged their reactions as he tells them to get ready to head to the training grounds, wanting to test if the children this year would be able to be fully grown heroes.

But through it all, Aizawa kept his eye on a certain green haired student that the principal had briefed during the last month.

Midoriya Izuku. AKA the kid who got involved with the underground.

By all accounts, he would have been considered a villain just for that, but it's rather sketchy.

Despite being part of it, Leopard never participated in any accounts of villainy with his recorded and known actions, thanks to Nighteye's information gathering, are all in that arena he was involved in.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Yet he never told anyone about the ring until Nighteye found the location with intern Toogata Mirio.

So he isn't exactly a hero either by a margin during his days underground since he still held the status of civilian, so calling the kid a vigilante would be a stretch.

Rather, he would preferabbly be called someone on the middle of the grounds of black and white morality.

A neutral. Or to be precise, a bystander.

He didn't actively take part in actions of villainy but never acted in heroism either.

But he has to admit that the boy got potential if he was crowned the king of the arena at twelve.

There is a reason he got recommended to U.A even if it was, unofficially, a parole.

He already saw how Midoriya treats his peers, sure he is affable, but only time will tell if he would return to the underground and it'll take time for Aizawa himself to be able to believe and deem the kid as potential hero.

Impressed

Midoriya asides, the other kid he plans to keep an eye on is Shinsou Hitoshi. He read over the files that he was called as villain due to the nature of his quirk by people around him yet here he is, joining U.A.

Meaning that he is serious about wanting to be a hero.

He sees how the kid used his quirk to get participants away from the scene when the zero point bot started attacking from the exam's footage and he takes being able to find an alternative use to a quirk being a good point.

But he has yet to see if the kid is physically capable of surviving the hero course department.

So he can't be too biased just because he likes Shinsou's determination to prove others wrong. (Plus the fact that Aizawa had been very impressed at Shinsou's actions from the footage)

He left as soon as he was done explaining, exhaling a sigh.

Assessment

After hearing the details of the quirk assessment test, he simply watched and stayed quiet while his classmates are excited at the thought of being able to use their quirk as much as they want.

Then Aizawa sensei decided to threaten them with expulsion in case anyone ranked last and he got worried about Shinsou.

After all his advice, Shinsou may just have to fail because, from his insomniac appearance, he had a feeling that Shinsou isn't strong, physically.

He wasn't sure how much of Aizawa sensei's threat of expulsion is credible but he doesn't seem to be lying.

So before the assessment started, he went over to Shinsou. "Shinsou, I'm not sure if you want to hear it but, good luck. No hard feelings, yeah?"

Shinsou returned his encouragement with a nod. "You too Midoriya."

He nodded back.

When the assessment started, he took the opportunity to observe and see his classmates quirks and how they do.

Some are doing well, some don't.

He doesn't really get too worried about Iida or the nice brown haired girl, whom he learns is Uraraka from the letter he got about his acceptance.

When it's Shinsou's turn, he was actually surprised that Shinsou was able to run fast, outspeeding Uraraka's record by one second. He guessed that Shinsou must have taken some physical training as preparation for heroics, given that due to the nature heroics, there needs to be physical abled people for actions like rescuing and fighting.

His turn came last, paired with Bakugou.

Of course Bakugou would have used his quirk to win this mock race but he see's no need to use Enmity or One For All when he's used to jogging as his routine for six years now.

Next comes the grip strength test, getting 91 kilograms. He doesn't think he has the pleasantries to hear out everyone's results though he heard one student getting 540 Kilograms. Mezou Shouji.

The standing long jump test was something he probably won't succeed unless he used his quirk, but Enmity is strength enhancement and he's not really that tired or injured yet and using One For All, when he hasn't come up with ways to use it without breaking his fingers makes it a no go so he didn't use his quirk at all.

The sideway jumps had been a breeze, since it's one of the things he had been doing and it's almost natural like fighting.

And then there's the ball pitch.

When his turn comes, he was about to throw when Aizawa sensei called him.

"Midoriya, try not to hold back."

That sentence caught attention of his other classmates, he himself, on the other hand, blinked. "Yes?"

Aizawa sensei frowned. "I noticed you haven't been using your quirk at all Midoriya. So if you can use it, then your results will be more accurate."

Ah, this is going to be a pickle. Oh well.

He nods anyway and punched himself once. Hearing the chorus of gasp from his classmates.

Twice.

Thri-

He felt something holding his right hand back from punching himself the third time, looking to see a long cloth, he followed the line of the cloth to see it was Aizawa sensei's scarf and then it hit him.

Aizawa sensei is underground hero, Eraserhead.

He resisted himself from fanboying.

Sure he's less of a fanboy now but he still has his moments.

"What are you doing." He glared at him.

"...You said I should use my quirk, and my quirk needs me to actually be injured to activate."

He can hear murmurs from his classmates at that statement. Aizawa sensei relented at that and let go of the scarf holding his right hand.

Punching himself one last time and took the ball on his hand. Throwing it.

There was a blast of wind following the ball and he's sure there's a sound of something cracking, the ball landed and formed a tiny crater around it.

He blinked. "Ah. I overdid it."

And that was when his classmates started commenting.

"Yo, what the heck! He made a crater!"

"That quirk looks tough but the condition to activate it makes it pretty scary."

"But damn, he made a crater! How tough is he!?"

Aizawa read the result. Smiling, though with how tired he looks, he might as well be smirking. "2 kilometres."

The rest of the assessment had been easy in comparison.

Result

Aizawa sensei gave the results in a holographic chart.

He was sure he heard Bakugou gawking at where he was but he could care less about it as he searches for Shinsou's name, he's 19th, almost teetering to last and barely passing.

Then Aizawa mentions lying about the whole expulsion thing. To the surprise of everyone else but a tall girl with a spiky ponytail, Yaoyorozu Momo. Who commented. "Oh come on, use your brains! Of course it was a ruse!"

He added his own opinion. "Still, he doesn't seem to be lying earlier."

"He must have put a convincing act then." She compromised. Then looked at him. "I see why you have been recommended to enter U.A as well, Midoriya-san. You placed third."

He blinked. Huh. So he's third.

He then looked back at the list. Yaoyorozu was placed first and in second place, is Todoroki Shouto.

Yaoyorozu's comment got his classmates (Sans Iida) wondering, and Shinsou especially, asked, voicing the class's questions. "You're recommended?"

He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Well, yeah. Sort of. I personally requested to take part of the exams like everyone else instead. So..."

Shinsou snorted. "For someone recommended, you seem to be selling yourself short." Adding. "It's not a bad thing. I guess. Sometimes, people are so up there they act like jerks to people below them."

He smiled at that. "I can see where you're coming from. I understand the sentiment."

Before the rest of the class can actually ask more, Aizawa sensei cut them off, saying that he'll be handing the curriculum handouts later and gave him a slip to get to Recovery Girl to take care of the bruises.

But as he left, he had a nagging feeling that someone is glaring daggers at him but dismissed it.

Outrunning

Bakugou Katsuki was pissed that Deku was placed third while he entered in fourth.

How the fuck was Deku this strong? Improving his quirk in the span of six years to the point of close mastery is just impossible. Sure, Bakugou may have mostly used his quirk based on instinct, but even he knows that he needs more improvement while Deku doesn't seem like he needs anymore of those except maybe, finding an alternative way to activate that quirk without making it look like he has a death wish.

But one thing's for sure.

It's clear that whatever happened in between the five-six years he left the neighborhood, Deku has completely outrun him in every aspect.

And that thought infuriated him even more.

That the once weak Deku is now far stronger than he is.

Learning and improving his quirk with the help of the Ishikawa's his ass.

He needs to know the full truth.

But he knows he's not going to get an answer from Deku anytime soon. Their friendship is all in tatters, and this Deku is not the same crybaby weakling as the one he remembered in his memories.

He knows now that Deku, at the moment, is in no mood to listen to him so even if he wants the truth, Deku will aggravate him through sarcasm to avoid the topic altogether.

All that is left is to wait for the right time to get his answer.

He knows that he himself is clearly, impatient. But being impatient right now isn't going to do him any favors in finding the truth about what the hell happened to Deku in between the six years he was gone from the neighborhood.

So for now, he'll wait.

Name

The rest of the first day had been anti-climatic and peaceful.

Izuku was about to head home when he hears Iida approach.

"Midoriya-kun, how are your bruises?"

"It should be fine, they sting, but tolerable."

"Ah, that's a relief. You had me worried for a moment when you punched yourself earlier!"

"Ahaha, sorry about that."

"Oh there you are." Both of them turn back to see Shinsou coming over to them.

"Ah, you're Shinsou-kun, right?"

Shinsou nodded. He decided to ask. "Say Shinsou, do you actually start going to gym or something between the entrance exam and the start of U.A's curriculum? No offense but you don't seem athletic."

"So I've heard." The insomniac shrugged. "I started doing physical exercises when I got the letter of acceptance into heroics. I know it's not going to be easy so it's best to get prepared."

"I see! That's quite admirable Shinsou-kun!" Iida comments.

He offered. "I can think up of some exercise schedule to help you out, if you'd like."

Shinsou blinked. "Really?"

"Yeah, I practice boxing to take full advantage of my quirk so it's like second nature. I don't see why I shouldn't help."

He then started talking about possibilities. Mumbling. "But you're sort of like an insomniac so maybe you should take yoga exercises in the morning and the night since they're healing stretches. Oh, for a martial art style, how about Aikido? Since you don't seem strong and the principle of Aikido is to turn the opponents energy against them so it would have worked great. But maybe when you get better physically, you can go for a martial arts of your choice, like Taekwondo or-"

Shinsou cleared his throat.

He stopped, and scratched the back of his head in embarassment. "Ahaha, sorry about that. I like to analyze and think of ways to improve someone's quirk. I get off tangent sometimes."

Shinsou snorted in response. "Huh, who would've thought." He nods at him. "Still, I appreciate the help."

"It's quite admirable Midoriya-kun! Not only are you strong, but you are clever as well!"

"Heyy!" They turned away from the conversation to see Uraraka calling for them.

"You're infinity girl!"

"Ah! You're Iida Tenya-kun, Shinsou Hitoshi-kun and..." She turned to him. "Midoriya Deku-kun!"

...Uh. "Deku?"

"Eh? It's not? I heard in the morning that the Bakugou kid called you that."

Ah, so that's what it's about. He clarified. "Well, it's a demeaning name by Bakugou because my name, Izuku can be read as Deku."

Uraraka's mouth formed a wide "Oh". "Sorry! I thought it seemed cute! Like it gives a "I can do it!" vibe and pretty heroic!"

"Ah, no problem, really!" Izuku reassured her. Really, it's the first time someone thinks of his nickname in a positive light so he felt rather flustered.

"Oh yeah, what is your relationship with Bakugou anyways?" Shinsou wonders.

"Yes! I'm wondering as well, Midoriya-kun!" Iida adds, accompanied by Uraraka's nod.

Izuku's throat hummed in thought. Before deciding to say. "We used to be friends as kids, but Bakugou let's praise get to his head when he got his quirk and I didn't really find out the circumstances of how my quirk activates till I'm eight and after that... it's complicated."

He clarified, seeing their confused looks. "Before I found out the condition to activate my quirk, I was deemed quirkless by everyone else in our neighborhood and is sort of his punching bag. It took me moving out with a host family who volunteered to help me with quirk training at nine to get better from all the bullying and can talk back to him right now."

Not a complete truth. But truthful enough. He'd rather avoid mentioning the underground ring.

Uraraka puffed her cheeks. "Bakugou's mean! Hmph!"

"Indeed! His actions are prospeterous! That is not what a hero should do!" Iida pushed his glasses to the bridge of his nose, his free hand motioning while he's doing so.

Shinsou shrugged. "Well, his loss then. You're a decent nice guy regardless of your quirk or because you're perceived quirkless for it before."

"I must concur with Shinsou-kun! You are a humble, heroic person!"

"Seconded!"

Hearing the support, he can't help but chuckle. "Thanks you three. I appreciate it."

He then looked at Uraraka.

"Well, Uraraka-san, I don't think I would mind you calling me "Deku" since you think of it in a positive light..."

Uraraka smiled and soon they walked to the station, talking about mundane but comfortable topics.

His first day in U.A doesn't seem too bad.

* * *

 **New term of college just started for me, which means slow progress in trying to update and work on future middle ground chapters. Do bear with me if updates are late.**

 **Shinsou took the spot meant for Mineta so Mineta won't appear... or will he?**

 **Despite the drawbacks of Enmity, here are my reasons to have Izuku placed third:**

 **1: Due to the nature of her quirk, Yaoyorozu would need lots of training and studying to fully utilize her quirk, hence why she's placed first like canon. This Izuku only has experience of five years and yet to come up with alternating ways that doesn't truly harm him to activate Enmity and there's the issue of One For All.**

 **2: In raw power, Todoroki is the only person whose power is on par with this Izuku since the power brought through activation of Enmity can be equal to Todoroki's own, but even more so when Izuku is even more cornered. But injuries that Izuku takes for Enmity to activate is Izuku's very own Achiles Heel, since he'll succumb to those injuries before he can finish the fight. So Enmity can be impractical. Hence why Todoroki is still placed second.**

 **3: Bakugou could be able to beat Izuku through instinct, but he lacks this Izuku's experience otherwise.**

 **I try to adapt at least one chapter showing the events of one arc but it depends on whether the arc is long or short. And some dialogues are kind of skipped over, because I don't want to make this a complete rehash of canon so things that had been the same are going to be glossed over unless stated otherwise through the narrations.**

 **Thanks again for all the Follows and favorites! See you next chapter!**

 **\- torinokomachi**


	4. ثلاثة

Intimidate

It was the first day of the new week and Kirishima was happy.

The sun is shining, the birds are singing.

And the class saw Midoriya, Iida, Uraraka and Shinsou talking about quirks intensively.

Don't get him wrong, he thinks Midoriya is a good guy.

He wasn't exactly intimidated by Midoriya's personality, but rather, his quirk and prowess.

Really, he talked with Mina and his newfound friends in the class last week and most of them shared an opinion that he's too strong it's almost intimidating that someone so good is part of the class.

Still, that all faded when he listened in on Midoriya talking with Shinsou, joined by Iida and Uraraka before homeroom starts.

Something about a training schedule and ways to improve their quirks.

Now that, got him and a handful of his classmates interested as they started to join the converstation, including him.

What they know of Midoriya is that he was acquainted with Iida, Uraraka, and Shinsou and are fast friends because of it.

But he has a complicated and bad relationship with Bakugou that goes far back but none of them know what happened.

Speaking of Bakugou, if there's someone with the correct description of intimidating, it would have been Bakugou. Bakugou has the temper that would scare people on the fly unless they knew better.

So in a way, both Midoriya and Bakugou are intimidating in their own right.

Though if he has to compare between Bakugou and Midoriya, Midoriya is far more intimidating in terms of strength (he can imagine how much of a danger Midoriya would be if he is _too_ injured but it's also worrying because the guy wouldn't be able to finish the whole fight because of his injuries), but as a person, Midoriya is far less intimidating than Bakugou was.

Bakugou seems to be too stuck up while Midoriya, from what he and his classmates learn from this conversation, is humble and friendly.

Though he would like to be able to actually talk to Bakugou to find out what kind of person he is underneath that gruff, temperamental personality.

But back to the situation at hand.

"Hey, what's this about quirk training?" He ask.

Midoriya answers. "Ah, well, it's mostly body training and quirk control. I like quirk analyzing so I'm thinking of ways that could help improve someone's quirk and also their other capabilities. Shinsou here doesn't have a quirk that can be helpful with combat but we have Aizawa-sensei, whose underground hero Eraserhead-"

"Wait what!?"

"Ah, there's Deku-kun's closet hero geek coming out!" Uraraka giggled.

Midoriya blinked. "Oh, you guys didn't know. Whoops."

Soon enough, the whole class got to talking and were impressed by Midoriya's observations and very open nature.

The only offset from Midoriya's intimidatingly powerful but risky quirk is that Midoriya is a good guy, and the others like him for not being very showy with his quirk.

Normalcy

It's been a week and Izuku didn't think he'd enjoy being in a class right now.

He doesn't mind being in class, but he has bitter memories of when his quirk was yet to be awakened and everyone considers him quirkless for it.

It's why he accepted taking online classes easily when the Ishikawa's offered.

He doesn't want to go back to school with mean judgemental people.

But in the end, he learns through years in the underworld that people will believe what they want to believe and those people will take a harder time to be convinced of the truth.

Like how he'll always be considered a monstrous king in the underworld for his quirk-

No, he's not in the underworld anymore.

He's away.

He's safe.

He's free.

"I'm free." He repeats in his mind whenever he finds himself remembering about the underworld.

He snapped back to reality when Uraraka called for him during lunch. Shaking his head that he's just thinking as he spaced out.

Sister

Color him surprise, that his adoptive sister, Ishikawa Maiko is studying here as well in the General Course.

Maiko never told him.

Maiko is his age but is older than him for a few weeks. She calls him little brother and doesn't care about the few week gap otherwise.

Maiko is also his partner with his new hobby of dancing.

She's actually why he was able to get into dancing as a side hobby and side training but Maiko, having danced longer than he was, is far better than he did, especially with Capoeira.

Maiko took up a dance battler like fighting style that mains Capoeira and combines other dance genre's.

With her heightened reflexes for a quirk, she could have a shot at heroics as well, but he respects the fact that Maiko prefers dancing over heroics.

It was a surprise at the third day of school when she approached him during lunch with his newfound friends. "Izu-chi!"

"Mai-chan?"

The three friends looked at Maiko and him back and forth in wonder.

"Ah! I'm Ishikawa Maiko. Studying in the General Course." And she sling her arm around his neck. "And this green-haired rascal is my little brother!"

"Mai-chan no." He mumbled as Maiko had his head in a headlock. He knows where this is going.

"Mai-chan yes." She grinned. And used her free hand on his temple. "Noogie noogie noogie!"

That hurt.

"Ow ow stop! I'm not a kid anymore!"

"Nope! Once a little brother, always will be a little brother!"

God he's feeling the second hand embarassment right now.

Iida, bless him, asked, saving him from even more embarassment. "Ah, so you're from Midoriya-kun's surrogate host family? He did mention that the surname of his teacher and volunteering person is Ishikawa..."

"Yep! That's my grandpa!"

"Ah! I am very pleased to meet you! I am Iida Tenya, the ones beside me are Uraraka-kun and Shinsou-kun. We're classmates and friends of Midoriya-kun!"

Maiko let out a dramatic gasp. "Little Izu-chi has a friend...?"

Then Maiko pulled him into a tight hug. "My baby brother has grown up!"

He groaned, looking at his new friends with a look that spelled "Help me". Luckily, Maiko let go of her tight bear hug.

"You have so many good classmates Izu-chi! My class has too many pessimistic kids but ultimately good people regardless of that! Though there's this kid with food like hair that everyone universally hates after that locker incident..."

"What locker incident?"

"Well..."

Embarassment asides, he is just glad that Maiko is welcoming of his new friends.

Training

It's the class that everyone's excited for, Hero training.

Well, he felt the excitement too but with the downside of his quirk, he doesn't feel that excited when compared to his classmates.

He's afraid of accidentally hurting someone.

It's always the case during his days in the underground world, as good of a control he has with Enmity, he has no way of gauging how much strength he puts in and there are far too many incidents where he accidentally hurts his opponents too much, even though they all survived, but possibly traumatized.

Enmity, his true quirk, will always be seen with his association to the underground world.

And that's what he hates about Enmity, as much as he accepts it as his own quirk. And another reason why he took the chance of accepting All Might's offer to be his successor.

He accepts that he brought it to himself, but that doesn't mean that he has to like being associated to what the people of the underground see him as.

It's partially selfish on his part, but he couldn't help it.

When he talks about this to All Might during their training sessions months back, All Might does admit that everyone always have something done out of pure selfishness and it's fine because All Might understands his circumstances enough to see why. Adding, "It's fine to be selfish once in a while, young Midoriya."

He felt comforted at those words, but a part of him also felt that he may or may not have let All Might down for it.

Look

Everyone arrived at the training ground with costumes on.

A good portion stayed quiet while a majority of them are showing off how cool they look at their hero gears.

He arrived last and was greeted by Uraraka, Iida, and Shinsou. "Deku-kun, you look like you're going for the dark hero look."

He can't argue with that. It's a combination of his first and second design, specifically made with mom's love.

"Well, I want to go being an underground hero than a public one."

Truthfully, he doesn't want to be recognized as a public hero what with his situation as a formerly influential underground figure and all. Being an underground hero is the best route to take for him.

It also helps to keep a level of privacy of his personal life and he doesn't care about fame. He just like helping people over getting money. He has enough of that in the underground.

Shinsou looked at his arms and questions. "Midoriya, are you sure you did boxing? Your arms look as thin as a match stick."

He shrugged his shoulders. "Eh, the muscles never really grow and it's fine with me. It's nice because opponents won't guess that someone like me has a pretty powerful quirk."

A very helpful feature he had from his old days underground. Looks are really really deceiving.

"By the way Iida, your costume looks cool."

'Like a sentai transformer.' He thought to himself.

He talks more before All Might's voice boomed throughout the room.

Team up

Oh _joy_. He's fighting against Bakugou. And they're the first to go to boot.

He prays that Iida can get Bakugou to cooperate but knowing Bakugou, Iida probably couldn't get the explosive blonde to listen to him.

On the bright side, he's on a team with Uraraka. So that's good.

They head out to the field and talked about their plan but he suggested. "I'll be the bait Uraraka-san. You should go to where the bomb is in place."

Uraraka looks worried. "Are you sure Deku-kun?"

He nods. "Yeah, you know I had a bad history with Bakugou, right?"

"Yeah I do..."

He explains. "I maybe more nimble thanks to my training but I just got the feeling that Bakugou would be going after me instead of prioritizing his mission in this training. So I think you have to be the one to go after the bomb."

Uraraka nods, understanding his reason. "Okay then, leave it to me, Deku-kun!"

All Might's voice boomed throughout the field as the training starts.

Personal

"I want you to go after Deku four eyes."

That's what Bakugou has told him. "Why?"

"He probably thinks I'm going for him and forget about the bomb."

Knowing Bakugou's bad history with Midoriya-kun, it wasn't out of the question that he would do it since Bakugou doesn't seem too keen on listening to others.

What he didn't know is why he decided to stay with the bomb instead.

He lets his curiosity get to him as he ask. "Why? What is going on between you and Midoriya-kun?"

Bakugou didn't look at him. But he answers nonetheless. "Personal. Really personal shit."

He heard a bit from Midoriya-kun about how bad their friendship deteriorated over the years but he wasn't sure if he wanted to pry more.

He has heard enough from Midoriya-kun.

He obliges with Bakugou's order nonethless, if only to warn Midoriya-kun.

Predict

Okay, he didn't expect Bakugou to read on him and get Iida to go after them instead.

Uraraka volunteered to take on Iida while he goes to where the bomb was. Where Bakugou was.

Iida did warn him in advance to be careful with Bakugou, and that's what he's thankful for.

So here he stood in front of Bakugou, who was blocking the door that held the bomb.

"I didn't think you figured me out and send Iida to us."

"If I was very pissed off at you, maybe."

"By all means, I know you have very reason to be pissed at me since that's how it was when we're kids."

"You said it yourself didn't you, Deku? People change."

He doubt anyone like Bakugou would change so easily in the span of a week. So he raised a brow at the claim.

"Really? If you really did change from the Bakugou I once remembered, let me give you a challenge. I'll let you hit me and I won't hit you back. I won't block either."

Bakugou seems to have taken the bait as he aimed a jab right at him, which he avoided swiftly.

"I never said I won't be avoiding you though." His lips curved to a smirk. Looking at Bakugou's growing ire.

Mouse

The class shifted their attention from Iida and Uraraka's fight to Bakugou and Midoriya's which turned into a cat and mouse game with Midoriya being the mouse and Bakugou the cat.

They all thought Midoriya had a death wish until they saw Midoriya swiftly dodging the punches.

"Why didn't he block the hits?" Mashirao wonders.

"It's a taunt." Shinsou answers. Then explaining. "Midoriya taunts Bakugou to attack him with those conditions. Seeing that the condition to make his quirk stronger is through his injuries. Though if not for the conditions of his quirk, he's purposely riling Bakugou up to forget his original purpose of staying with the bomb earlier."

Yaoyorozu nods in understanding. "I see... so it works in a way that either situation would be advantageous for Midoriya-san. Like the words, "Mice will bite when cornered"."

The class echoed an "oohh" or "I see!" except for the silent ones. Though, Yaoyorozu murmured. "Though... Midoriya-san barely resembles a mice."

Checkmate

"Stop running away and fight me!"

He can faintly hear Bakugou screaming as he hid in a room during this game of chase.

He turned the communicator on and called. "Uraraka-san, are you there?"

" _Deku-kun! How are things at your end?"_

"Managed to distract Bakugou away from the bomb. But no telling when he's going to chase me. How about you?"

" _I managed to touch on Iida-kun's armor and get him to float. It wasn't easy but... what do I do now?"_

"I'll keep distracting Bakugou, go for the bomb, alright?"

" _Alright Deku-kun!"_

He turned it off and walked towards the exit of the room and shouted. "Come and get me _Kacchan_!"

He has _way_ too much fun riling the explosive boy up. But, it's as they say, "All is fair in love and war"? Maybe he should've worded it as "All is fair in war" in this situation.

Rule number one, as taught by grandpa Ishikawa and his experience fighting underground. No matter the setting, you should never expect your opponent to play fair. And he stood by that. Old habits die hard.

As soon as he shouted, he ran out and went to a different direction from where he first came from.

Unfortunately, he was caught off-guard as Bakugou charged straight at him as soon as he ran that direction and he is now pinned at the ground with Bakugou keeping a hold at his neck. Viciously grinning at him.

"I win, Deku."

"You think?"

Then there was the announcement from the intercom. "Hero team wins!"

He grinned defiantly back at Bakugou.

"Checkmate. _Kacchan_."

Unconventional

Todoroki Shouto listens in as All Might declared Midoriya Izuku the MVP of the match.

He didn't have much interest in Midoriya during his first day until the quirk assessment test proved him wrong.

His quirk is a double-edged sword that he used sparingly but in tune with his control.

He also observed that under his quirk, is an analytical mind, as he was listening in earlier during the day about Midoriya giving a breakdown of his classmates' quirks and helping them improve.

He also noted the way Midoriya fought.

Midoriya fights as if he had experience fighting too many battles for someone his age.

But he doubts that Midoriya comes from a very dysfunctional household like his own. But it still stands.

He listens to Yaoyorozu explaining. "Iida-san would have been the MVP of the match as he play the role of the villain of this exercise well, but he lets slip to the heroes about Bakugou-san too easily. Uraraka-san gets distracted. And Bakugou-san lets himself be baited by Midoriya-san's taunts. As unconventional as it is, Midoriya-san's plan, though changed due to the unforeseen circumstance of Iida-san coming for them, was effective."

She then ask. "I may have to ask Midoriya-san, why this plan? It is quite reckless of you to taunt Bakugou-san."

"Well, Yaoyorozu-san. You can't expect anyone to fight fair sometimes. Villains don't follow by rules and if you follow by rules, it'll be your downfall. This maybe training, but real Villains don't exactly fight fair. So if they don't fight fair, give them a run for their own money."

Everyone was astounded by his reasoning because in a way, he had been right. Maybe one day, they may fight Villains like that in the future.

But this really takes the cake for Todoroki.

Midoriya Izuku seems to have experience in far too many fights for his age. His only experience had been training with that asshole, but Midoriya looked like he has experienced the ins and outs of an actual fight.

There's also the fact that his quirk also has a resemblance to urban legend, Leopard. A figure he often caught himself listening on during his middle school days by his old peers.

And this brought a question to his mind. Is Midoriya Izuku actually the Leopard?

He saved that thought for later as it's his team's turn next.

Challenge

As soon as hero training was done, he was greeted with praises by his classmates.

Izuku isn't that used to this many people praising him genuinely.

His days in the underground, the praises are based on fear than out of genuine respect and admiration.

It's refreshing from the oppressive feeling from the underground.

Then Bakugou approached him.

"Deku, we need to talk."

He blinked. Not knowing where this is going. "Sure."

And so he followed Bakugou outside, and he ask. "The fuck happened to you?"

"...What?"

"You know what I mean. What the fuck happened to you six years ago?"

Ah. He's curious. "Would you like to know _Kacchan_?"

Bakugou glared at him but dropped it. "Fine, you don't want to fucking tell." But he gave a defiant smirk. "That doesn't mean I'm giving up in trying to find out what actually happened six years ago."

Huh.

Challenge accepted.

"I'd like to see you try."

* * *

 **Okay, ouch, it took me so long for an idea to hit me so I really, really apologize for the long delay.**

 **Anyway!**

 **I'm officially naming the chapters. They're named from numbers in different languages.**

 **My personal given name for Maiko is 舞子. Meaning dancing child. A nod to her love and interest of dancing. It also a term for Geisha's in training in Japan.**

 **It wasn't easy writing the Bakugou Vs Izuku scene here since I don't want it to end up completely the same as canon. I ended up making Izuku win against Bakugou again but even then, his plan isn't the wisest either. Really double-edged.**

 **Kid with food hair? Who could it be, hm?**

 **On another note, I'll be writing my other fics in case I have writer's block with Middle Ground, most of them are one-shots and some on-going fics that are more of a one-shot series. Most of these are AO3 exclusive, however. With a short summary, they are:**

 **Too Cute, Pretty, and Sexy: A crack fic inspired by the Indonesian Webtoon, Terlalu Tampan, a comedy webtoon that parodies Bishounen tropes.**

 **Hello World (AO3 Exclusive): A Pokémon and BNHA crossover in which BNHA is in the same universe as Game-verse Pokémon.**

 **Way Back Home (AO3 Exclusive): An AU for Middle Ground itself that doubles as a crossover with Granblue Fantasy, where our resident cinnamon roll is Ayer reincarnated. Plus other Granblue Fantasy characters reincarnating here as well and changing the BNHA universe. (There's no need to play Granblue Fantasy itself, but you may find yourself confused with the huge cast numbers as this follows the game)**

 **Alchemic Reaction (Edit: Now available in this site as well): This, I haven't written much yet, with only the prologue, but it's a Pre-canon BNHA fic that I wrote as a world-building practice.**

 **Grancypher Journal (AO3 Exclusive): A Slice-of-life one-shot series of Granblue Fantasy.**

 **That's all, see you next time!**

 **― Torinokomachi**


	5. Quatre

**A wild surprise update appeared!**

 **I was very excited for season 3 so other than re-watching the previous seasons for recap reasons, I also work on the USJ arc for this fic while I'm at it and admittedly, too many things are glossed over since I focus on the changes that this AU brings rather than write about everything.**

 **But I'm also working on the Sports Festival arc, which would be really long to make up how short the USJ arc is adapted to here.**

 **Anyway, thank you for the support!**

* * *

Resist

He lied about his patience.

He can't resist it.

He's not the most patient person after all.

So when he got irritated at Deku's provocation, it led him to asking him directly altogether.

He knows enough that Deku calling him by his embarassing nickname equals to "I'm not telling".

The current Deku, that is.

So he dropped it.

But he doesn't give up.

Bakugou Katsuki is not a quitter.

So he's going to find out the answer to his long question no matter what.

But he was still irritated at the loss with battle training earlier.

He won with catching Deku, but it still left him feeling empty.

Because Deku won the battle trial.

Space

"Can you tell us what All Might is like as a teacher!?"

He stares incredulously as a microphone was shoved to his face and reporters surrounding him.

Why oh why are reporters so nosy?

"Excuse me but I'm going to be very late to class and you're not helping." He answers and stride as fast as he could away from the space invading reporters.

He is glad that Aizawa-sensei happened to be there as he entered the school.

Review

Luckily, he managed to get into class.

Aizawa-sensei starts home-room and reviews their battle trial results.

"Bakugou, keep your temper in check and don't get caught in taunts. You're not a five year old."

Bakugou grumbled. Then Sensei looked towards his direction.

"Midoriya, as admirable as your plan was, stop trying to get yourself killed. An angry villain would be the end of you one day."

He can only nod. He knows as much.

Sensei announced a need for a class representative and the class got loud.

Leadership

Three votes.

Why three votes.

He stares at Uraraka who was looking away from Bakugou, Shinsou who looked as bored as ever, and Iida not looking at him.

Why.

Just why.

He was sure Bakugou is screaming about something but he was dumbfounded at why they would pick him, a reckless suicidal fighter.

He voted for Iida because he seems to be more suitable at this. He never really interacted with many of his peers for years and the only one his age that he ever talked to was his adoptive sister Maiko. Which doesn't really help.

He lacks proper social skills to communicate with others due to him focusing on his quirk than actually enjoy being a kid.

But speaking of, Iida and Yaoyorozu got tied with vice representative, self-votes didn't count to him. (Yaoyorozu actually had two, but he asked, and she admitted that she voted for herself in one, so he doesn't count that as an actual vote.)

Only one can win.

Izuku decided to go another way. So he spoke. "Sorry I think I'll hand over the position of class representative to Iida. He seemed to be more suitable to be class representative. And I don't think I'm suitable for this."

Iida was surprised. "Midoriya-kun, are you sure?"

"I don't mind Iida. You want it more than I do."

Iida looks very touched. "Midoriya-kun... I won't let your sacrifice be for naught!"

Iida is dramatic, but his heart is in the right place. There was luckily no complaints to his decision. But there are some confused stares.

Suitable

"Deku-kun, why didn't you think you're suitable?" Uraraka asked during lunch.

It's a routine now that he ate lunch at the cafeteria with Uraraka, Iida, and Shinsou. Maiko occasionally joined the group. But today, Maiko is with her friends in the general course.

"Well, I'm flattered but... I don't know what you see in me. I'm sure our class's first impression on me is reckless and maybe suicidal due to how I fight."

"You're not exactly wrong Midoriya, but I don't think you're right either." Shinsou stopped munching to speak. "You helped the three of us in different ways Midoriya, quirk aside, you got the right personality. And even though the class are afraid of you for that quirk of yours, it's mostly out of worry like Iida and they know that you're a good person."

"Exactly Midoriya-kun! That's why I voted for you at first!"

"...Thanks guys."

And then there was an alarm.

Panic

Everyone started running around since it was a level three security breach.

A level three security breach means it's a very bad security breach.

And hence, every student in the cafeteria went on a panic and started trying to run out of the room, making it very very cramped.

He stayed in his position when he was told to move along.

He was thinking of how the breach happened. Could someone have a quirk that broke the gate?

Was it a villain or did someone hack into U.A's security system?

If so, what do they want from this situation?

Information gathering?

He was cut out of his thoughts as he hears Iida. "EVERYONE! EVERYTHING IS ALRIGHT!"

He looked up and saw him over at the wall, looking like a makeshift "Emergency Exit" sign.

"IT'S JUST THE PRESS! THERE IS NOTHING TO WORRY OF!"

The other students calmed down and slowly dispersed.

When they got back to class, their classmates talked to Iida.

"That was awesome Iida! Going up there!"

"Ah, no no, it was thanks to Uraraka-kun's help."

"Still, you were able to get everyone to calm down! Now I know why Midoriya handed over his position to you earlier!"

"Do us proud Emergency exit man!"

He smiled. He knew that he made the right choice of giving Iida the position of class representative.

The rest of the class that day, went by swimmingly.

Bus trip

Hero training is in the next day and they have to take a bus there.

He ended up sitting at the front with Asui, Kirishima, Ashido, Kaminari, Sato, Aoyama, and Iida. Uraraka is sitting with Yaoyorozu while Shinsou sat far back, with the pretense of needing sleep. He can't blame him, he looked like he didn't have a good sleep in a while.

Wearing the hero outfit he had, though he maybe considering asking to the support department when he gets back to U.A to change the materials of his current outfit but still keeping the design.

"To think it was this type of bus...!"

"All's well ends well Iida."

Asui spoke up. "Midoriya-chan."

"Yes Asui-san?"

"Call me Tsuyu. But well, I usually spoke up whats on my mind." She looked at him. "Your quirk is almost like the underground legend, Leopard."

Internally, he winced. Asui-san caught on pretty fast.

He didn't know how but apparently, he ended up being an urban legend to his peers ever since he won the title of king in the underground arena three-four years ago.

He doesn't know if he should be relieved that his true identity remained anonymous or worry at how many people still remembered about the Leopard.

It's not that he hated his original quirk, he just _loathe_ being associated to the underground just because of it.

Damn, he's really repeating himself at this point.

He used One For All to a minimum during the course he is in U.A so he was very glad that he can keep this one secret under wraps.

"Ah, really? I didn't catch on about the legend but I feel like it's more of a coincidence..."

"Maybe but man, that quirk of yours is cool even though it's scary that you had to be injured." Kirishima joined. "Well, my quirk, Hardening, is just a pretty simple quirk..."

"Even simple quirks can be cool Kirishima-kun. There's still lots of ways for you to apply utilities to that."

"Aww thanks Midoriya."

They talked a bit more about quirks and the attention shifted to flashy quirks, the group looking at Bakugou and Todoroki. Asui-san then said. "But Bakugou-chan gets easily angry, I doubt he'd get popular easily."

"THE FUCK IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN!?"

Asui-san pointed a finger at him to make a point. "See?"

What happened next was pretty magical for him.

He'd never thought that he'd actually see the day where Bakugou is at the receiving end of being teased.

As vindictive as he was about this all, no one deserved to be bullied. Becoming the bully doesn't make you any different from your previous tormentors.

Unless they do something that would make him be really angry.

Danger

The class was greeted by Space Hero Thirteen when they arrived.

As the hero explained about what the hero training today is for and then talk of quirks can be dangerous, he looked down at his hand and think of Enmity.

Enmity is a strength enhancer quirk, but is also very dangerous in it's own right.

Now that he's a hero, he has to learn how to hold back the output of the power that Enmity would unleash.

Lest he be a danger to his newfound friends.

And since he also got One For All, he fears the possibility of Enmity being enhanced further to the point that he will become a person of mass destruction.

He is glad that his body still treat both the quirks as something far separate from each other instead of as one quirk.

But he still need to be careful and learn how to control the output.

He looked up from his hand and belatedly realize the dark portal opening behind the teachers.

And in that second, he had a very bad feeling.

Ambush

His bad feeling was founded with villains.

Who declared murder on the class and All Might.

There are too many of them and he doubted that Aizawa-sensei can keep them on bay.

He was reluctant about Aizawa's order on evacuating but obeys nonetheless.

But lo and behold, the villains had someone with a warp quirk and send him and few others scattering as they try to evacuate.

Water

When he got out of the portal, he first see water and fell straight to it.

He was about to swim his way out before his eye caught onto a villain charging towards his direction.

He was saved by the timely arrival of Asui-san who also carried Shinsou with her. Asui-san landed at the ship and sat.

"Sorry, carrying two tall people is hard." Asui-san apologized.

"It's fine. Asui-san."

"Call me Tsuyu Midoriya-chan."

...Well. Since she insisted twice. He thought it would feel rude earlier during the bus. "Okay." He looked over at Shinsou. "You alright?"

"More or less." Shinsou groaned. Wondering. "Where are we?"

"It seems like we're in the flood zone." Tsuyu answers.

"So we're still in the USJ..." He murmured and started thinking.

Why the flood zone? He and Shinsou wouldn't be able to stand much of a chance against a villain ambush when they were dropped to the water because of the portal, but Tsuyu, who has a frog quirk, would be in more of an advantage than the two of them. She can swim out of the way.

It also seems that they try to ambush them by outnumbering the students. Which could mean...

"I think they don't know what our quirks are." He told the two. Explaining. "Think about it though, if they do know our quirks, they wouldn't have sent Tsuyu here. Where she'd be in an advantage."

"That's true, ribbit." Tsuyu agreed.

"But still, that's a lot of villains gathered there." Shinsou looked over at the villains waiting for the three of them to stand and act.

He got an idea. "Shinsou, do you think you can control a group of over ten people with your quirk?"

Shinsou looked hesitant. "I never tried... but I think I can."

"Midoriya-chan, are you sure about this?"

"It's worth a shot. I'd back up too Shinsou, I got some experience with taunting people." He looks at them. "Do you trust me on this?"

Tsuyu and Shinsou both look at him and slowly gave a nod.

Deceive

Shinsou-chan stood and looked at the villains. Shinsou-chan called out to them.

"You know, I was expecting that you'd be smart enough to figure out what our quirks are. But it turns out that you're not. So you just pick this job with barely a clue? What kind of villain are you?"

She can see at least half of the villains in the zone getting ticked at what Shinsou-chan said. Midoriya-chan backed him up, sounding utterly bored.

"Yeah, you guys could've just learned about our quirks first before picking the job but nope, you just want the money and fame instead of doing your job as a villain right."

Tsuyu can tell why Midoriya-chan would sound bored. Deception is always a trait with Midoriya-chan. He lacks muscles so no one can tell how strong he is and get his opponents to underestimate him. (The class know better, after seeing him in the quirk assessment test)

He usually only riles Bakugou-chan up but she can see that there was a purpose for him to do so, but for what, she didn't know. It was between Midoriya-chan and Bakugou-chan, after all.

So Tsuyu can tell that this is but a deception.

He sound bored, so the villains will get angrier and think that he is underestimating them.

Shinsou-chan finished for Midoriya-chan. "Get a hobby other than playing villain, why don't you?"

Now every single villain in the vicinity went ballistic and were about to go for it but that was when one by one, their eyes went blank, an effect of Shinsou-chan's quirk.

"Carry us out of here and when you're done, gather around at the boat till someone other than me gets to you."

They cleared the flood zone without much problems.

Leopard

Shigaraki thought this day couldn't get any better with no All Might in sight and apparently, one of the students escaped.

He was scratching his neck with impatience but then he noticed the three students watching in the sidelines at the flood zone.

Ah, maybe he can take this as compensation. To crush the pride of the symbol of peace.

And so he moved forward to where they were but he was beaten to the punch when one of them sucker-punched him.

The kid, a green-haired student, spoke. "Sorry sensei. I can't afford to stand still." He lunged a kick at him and went after the Noumu, screaming. There was a crackle of green and he punched the Noumu.

To no avail. After all, Noumu was designed for All Might thanks to sensei.

Of course it won't work. He gloated the fact and ordered. "Noumu, crush the kid."

Noumu let go of Eraserhead and aimed an attack at the kid.

The kid blocked but he was grinning. No one can survive an attack by the Noumu after all.

Except, the kid groaned. "Ow... never been hit this hard by an opponent before."

He now stare at the kid with disbelief. "How?"

The kid blocked the attack and somehow survived, but not unscathed. There was bleeding from his head and the arms that the kid used to block the hit was really bruised like hell.

"You didn't account to actually investigating the students quirks, did you?" The kid asked.

Smirking widely. "Thanks for giving me the power I need." And the kid started punching the Noumu so hard that the Noumu was overpowered.

The fight went on and then the Noumu was blasted away from the USJ.

He find it difficult to accept.

Noumu was supposed to be undefeatable.

How?

It was supposed to be able to be on match against All Might.

How did this kid defeat the undefeatble Noumu?

Did sensei lie-

No.

Sensei did not lie.

He tries to recall what Sensei told him about the Noumu and bingo.

Sensei mentioned that the only quirk that can damage the Noumu he gifted to himself is Enmity, and it's a quirk that is rumored to be wielded by the underground urban legend, Leopard. Enmity is far more overpowered than All Might's quirk. It's power increases the more injuries the user has.

Ah, he knew why the kid's quirk seem almost familiar.

He is now smiling in glee.

He found the surprise easter egg.

He found the rumored Leopard.

And then there doors were opened.

Relief

He can hear All Might telling everyone that it's now alright.

He was feeling relieved.

That attack from the Noumu hurt like hell.

He was dull from all that pain thanks to adrenaline but now he's feeling the after effects now that adrenaline left his body.

Ouch.

All Might took one look at him and immediately carry him to where Shinsou and Tsuyu was, and brought Aizawa with him after he did so.

Tsuyu supported him by carrying one of his arms. Both which are throbbing in pain.

"My boy." All Might look at him. "You have done well. Leave it to us teachers now."

He nodded.

He felt faint.

Must be from the injuries he got.

And he has to have a head injury too.

He can hear Shinsou and Tsuyu panicking and calling out for him as he closed his eyes.

But he was sure and hopeful that everyone is safe, nonetheless.


	6. Funf

Awake

Izuku wakes up to hospital lights and Recovery Girl nagging him as soon as she realized that he is awake.

"How reckless can you be, passing out from your injuries and getting an injury to the head, again!?"

Before the hit from the Noumu could connect to his body, he applied One For All at the upper body, head, and arms. Which, while helping in mitigating the damage he would have taken, still doesn't protect him completely.

"Sorry Recovery Girl... but it's better than broken bones, right?" He tried to mitigate Recovery Girl's ire. Looking sheepish.

Which doesn't seem to help much.

She shook her head, muttering about reckless One For All users.

"It's a miracle at this point that you didn't get a concussion from all those injuries. You had an injury to the head twice over the course you've been to Yuuei asides the broken bones with One For All and they don't even result in a concussion."

"Well... you can say I'm _hard-headed_."

Recovery Girl groaned at his attempt of a joke. He looked out at the window.

It's night time. He wondered. "How long did I pass out?"

"It's four hours after the USJ attack young man. Rest assured, your classmates are alright. The teachers are getting treated but they'll get better."

He was relieved to hear that.

"By the way, you have a few visitors waiting for you to wake up. They waited for a while. It's after school hours already but they insisted in wanting to wait for you to wake up."

Visit

Iida, Uraraka, Tsuyu and Shinsou entered the room as soon as Recovery Girl let them in.

"Midoriya-kun, are you alright?" Iida asked first.

"You had us worried when you passed out after fighting that monster."

He recalled Shinsou and Tsuyu calling him out before he passed out. Looking at them. "Sorry about that."

"You had me scared when I saw you bleeding at the head again and your arms look battered!" Uraraka spoke this time.

Tsuyu had to wonder about that. "Again?"

"Long story short, this guy," Shinsou point his finger at him. "got a head injury during the practical entrance exam and passed out as soon as the practicals were over. I wasn't there, but I heard second-hand from Iida and Uraraka."

Tsuyu looked at Shinsou and then turned to him. "Midoriya-chan, you're going to make everyone even more worried at this point."

"Sorry..." He apologized.

"Either way, it's a relief that you are alright, Midoriya-kun!"

He smiled at them and asked. "What happened after I passed out?"

All four of them look at each other and Shinsou started.

"After you passed out, hand man started talking weird stuff about how it's unfair that we're winning and call you the cheat code easter egg or something. I think he called you Leopard? And he told the warp villain to use his power to take you with them."

Oh for the love of-

Just his luck that a villain recognized him. Hiding about the fact that he was Leopard would be out of the question at this point.

Even if his classmates are his age, he knows that they'd find out in one way or another when they finally put two to two together.

If Tsuyu's observation earlier is any indication.

"Did they succeed?"

"No. Bakugou showed up and hold the warp guy's main body with Kirishima and Todoroki arrived just a little after Bakugou and Kirishima arrived. We didn't get to see more since All Might told Asui and I to get you and Aizawa-sensei out of there after that. When we got to the entrance, that's when the other teachers arrived at the USJ."

"Where are the villains though?"

"...From what I heard, after we got you of there with Aizawa-sensei, hand man started fighting against Todoroki and Kirishima with All Might when he tried to get warp guy away from Bakugou's grip. They stopped halfway when the teachers arrived. Warp guy managed to get away with making use of the distraction and escape with hand man anyways."

"Regardless, we're all safe Midoriya-kun!" Iida concludes the story.

That's what he heard from Recovery Girl.

"All's well, ends well." He looked at his heavily bandaged arms. "Except for my bandaged arms."

"Midoriya-kun!"

"Deku-kun!"

Shinsou snorted. "Only you Midoriya."

"Ribbit."

Recovery Girl entered the room just at that moment, telling the four that it's time to go home. He was lucky that they didn't ask more about the "Leopard".

Rest

Due to the incident yesterday, every student got a day off.

The Ishikawa's visited after hearing the news but they let him off since he takes the moment of holiday for a rest.

Toogata visited that night, wondering if he's fine about it all and also worried about whether the villains know about his underground background.

He chose to be honest and told him that yes, the villains have figured out that he is Leopard. And he then talked about his current fear.

"Toogata-san, I'm honestly afraid of having my class know and... what if they see me differently?"

"Midoriya, you're pretty much an urban legend to your peers right now whether you want to or not, they'd find out pretty fast about the fact that you're Leopard in one way or another."

"Toogata-san... I don't think they know how much of an influence I have in the underground even though I was the king for two years, I hate the sacrifice I made for it. I had enough of fame back in the underworld."

"Still, Midoriya, it doesn't change that they'll connect the dots soon. And learn to trust your new friends a little, alright? Not everyone is going to see you for your fame."

He was doubtful, but he agrees. "I... I'll give it a shot."

His time in Yuuei hasn't exactly been bad and his classmates are all good people, sans the explosive Bakugou. But he still had that fear.

The fear of being only seen for his feats than being seen as himself.

(The underground is like a cage. He can escape, but can never fully run away from it.)

News

When he returnes to class the next day, he was greeted by worried classmates.

"Dude, you scared me when you're bleeding in the head!"

"I heard you took on some crazy strong villain but then passed out for it... but you're so manly!"

"Midori, you okay?"

"Okay okay, I'm fine!" He tried to assure them.

"That's not very reassuring I tell you!"

He gave a nervous laugh in return. "I'm alive so I'm alright. Really."

The class calmed down and soon changed their topic to idle chatter.

Then Aizawa-sensei entered the class.

Motivation

A speech.

He had to make a speech for the Sports Festival.

Shit.

He doesn't even talk in the years in the underground to keep his age a complete secret from people who are part of that world.

He can't do a speech!

"I'm homeschooled for so long I forgot what it means to be near human contact." He groaned. His friends giving him sympathetic glances.

It's currently lunch time and after the announcement, everyone is getting excited at the upcoming Sports Festival.

"If you're prepared well than I believe you will make a good speech, Midoriya-kun!" Iida tries to cheer him up.

"I'll try..."

Well, speaking of the Sports Festival...

"I sort of know Shinsou and Iida's reasons to be a hero but... what about you, Uraraka-san?"

"Hm?"

"What motivates you to be a hero?"

"Well..."

So she talks. How she wants to gain money from heroism for the sake of her family. She was embarassed at the idea that it isn't too heroic but as unconventional as it is, it's real.

His father, who was absent for most of his life, had divorced from his mom after a failed marriage. But on amiable terms. Father wants to focus more on his career while mom wanted a family and since they didn't work out, mom and father decided on a divorce when he's 5 and since father still cares for the family despite being a career oriented person, still sends money to the family.

Despite that, the stress of parenting on her own puts a toll on mom and she starts taking back her old job as a designer after years of maternity leave if only so she can gain money on her own and not depend on father anymore. (He never really called Hisashi "Dad". Only "Father". He doesn't remember him much anyway)

But then again, he supports Iida's opinion that it's fine since her intention was to help her family.

"Ah! What about you Deku-kun? Why do you want to be a hero?"

"Well-"

All Might arrived at that moment to take him to talk.

Represent

All Might wasn't heavily injured since he took care of the Noumu first hand so All Might still had more time to be a hero again. Still in the 3 hour daily limit.

Thankfully.

But All Might wants to talk to him about his participation in the Sports Festival.

"My boy, I know how you feel about your past as an underground figure. However, this isn't about Leopard. This is about presenting yourself to the world as Midoriya Izuku. Rest assured, the world doesn't know about the fact that you and Leopard are the same person."

"Yes but..." His hand covered his face as he groaned once more. "I can't do public speaking."

All Might blinked and gave out a good natured hearty laugh. "Just be yourself, Young Midoriya. You don't need to mimic anyone else."

That seemed like good advice, but he's still panicking and jittery.

"I'll try... thanks All Might."

Fury

Right after school, things went to chaos.

A group of students from the other departments are crowding outside 1-A to see them.

Bakugou stood in front and had just offended the other students by calling them "Extra's", in typical Bakugou fashion, when someone commented.

"I was wondering what the deal is about with you guys getting the attention but all I see is a bunch of sourpusses who don't want to share that fame to the rest of us!"

His veins screamed fury and anger as soon as someone spat that out. He decided that he had enough.

He pushed past Bakugou and shot a _very_ terrifying glare to the offender.

"So." He looked at the students. His voice growing cold. "You think it's funny that we all fight for our lives and almost died in the USJ?"

He can now see half of the students outside looking pale at the thought. He continued.

"We're all too busy fighting for our lives, thinking that we're going to die then. Our teachers are even critically injured in trying to make sure that all of us are safe. And you still think that it's funny that we almost died and got fame for almost losing our lives?"

He paid no mind to his classmates telling him to stop. He wasn't going to stop. Or else, they would continue to berate the class and make things worse.

"Newsflash, several heroes actually died on the line of duty, like the Waterhorse duo who died fighting the villain Muscular two years ago. Did they do it for fame? No, they do it to keep people safe. And here you all are, thinking that it's funny that we almost died. If you think it's funny, how about you people go fight those villains in our place and maybe die in the process? Why don't you try put yourself in _our_ shoes?"

There was silence. The students look pale and horrified.

Good. He had enough with their assumptions. He's far too angry at this point.

"So you think that we're egoistic just because we almost died." His glare is now directed at the tiny, grape haired boy who was the instigator of this all.

"I don't care if you think being in heroics is a competition, but if you're not ready to sacrifice your life to save someone and make society a better place, then you don't deserve to be a hero."

The boy looked like he was about to tackle him and then a wall appeared in front of him.

Picking

"Stop picking a fight you fucking vermin!" There was this girl yelling in a good distance from the class, but close enough to the commotion, directing it at the grape hair boy.

"The hell is that for!?"

"You're being a nuisance! That's what!"

"Well I have you know that-"

"You had a chance at heroics, yeah, whatever. Newsflash, nobody cares about you!" She cut him off and then have the ground shift and cage the grape haired boy to a _very_ cramp cage that he can't escape from. She then turned towards him.

"Aww, sorry about that! He never learns no matter how many times we teach him a lesson!"

...Why is she acting all cutesy.

"Ren-chan you can drop the act." He hears Maiko following behind the girl.

"But Maiko-chan!"

"No buts."

"Aww." Ren (?) pouted. Maiko got closer and apologized.

"Sorry about him Izu-chi, he _never_ really learns." Maiko sighs.

His mind connected the dots about the kid with food hair that Maiko once mentioned. "No offense Mai-chan but," He can vaguely hear some of his classmates gawk "Mai-chan!?" as he paused, pointing at the caged kid. "this midget is the kid with food hair that is infamous for the locker incident?"

Now the gathering students blanched.

"I think I'm going to puke..."

"That never happened! Nope nope nope! Never happened!"

"Do you know how much shame that incident brought to us men!? Even we have standards!"

As the group of students screamed. Some in denial, and some in anger, Izuku let out a sarcastic "Wow". Looking at the kid, then back at Maiko. "At this point, I feel very disgusted on your behalf. You did tell me the details but the reactions takes the cake."

"Don't I know it." Maiko looks very exasperated remembering the incident.

"Why are you acting close to Ishikawa anyways?" The caged kid grumbled and made an attempt of a glare.

"She's my sister you asshole." He retorted, returning the glare with his own for good measure. The kid withered. He then looked at the other girl, who has strawberry blonde hair.

"And you're..."

"Oh, she's Ren-chan. My friend in the general course and a classmate of mine." Maiko introduced the girl.

"Nice to meet you Midoriya-kun! We all heard great things about you from Maiko-chan!" Ren acted so sickeningly cute it only make him stare at her blankly.

Is she two-faced?

"Thanks for keeping my sister safe. Must be hard with a guy like this kid around."

"No problem! I always like teaching little shits like this vermin a lesson!"

...Is this why Maiko is friends with Ren? Because when she carries out a threat, she really carries it out?

"Well, anyway." Maiko clapped her hands. "Alright people! Stop screaming! Any of the teachers can be nearby and we'll get detention if we stay longer!"

The screaming crowd went quiet and obliged, leaving the class alone. Maiko turned to Izuku. "I'd love to see the rest of your classmates but I don't think Ren-chan and I got anymore time and since we're bringing this guy," pointing over at the still caged grape jerk, she continued. "to class and not bother you anymore. See you!"

Ren waved bye as well as she used her quirk to move the cage, but that is when he got bombarded with questions by his classmates.

Anger

While Midoriya was glaring at the other students outside and looked like he was about to murder them, the whole class stood in shock.

Is this Midoriya? Humble, patient Midoriya?

"Is... is that really Midoriya?" Kaminari questions out loud.

In the week they had been classmates, Midoriya is never the kind to get so easily riled up, getting someone else riled up is Midoriya's forte. (Also Shinsou's but Midoriya wins unanonymously)

Even Iida, Uraraka, and Shinsou look stunned as the rest of the class were.

There's still aprehension about the class aproaching Midoriya due to his powerful quirk. But it's hard to hate a good humble guy like him.

Bakugou started. "Deku." He caught the attention of his classmates. He continued. "He's never one to get angry easily. Even when we were kids, I never see him angry. Not even once."

The whole class flinched. They understood the message. If Midoriya is this angry at whatever set him off, then it's real bad.

They look back to Midoriya again to find the perpetrator, some midget, be punted by a wall and someone, the owner of the quirk shouting "Stop picking a fight you fucking vermin!"

And then the kid got caged and there comes the new girl and Midoriya seems very familiar with her because he called her Mai-chan. That got almost everyone gawking.

Uraraka seemed happy to hear that name though. So does Iida and Shinsou who seemed relieved.

So they seem familiar with this Mai-chan too.

Then they turn back to the crowd as they start screaming, which ended pretty fast after it initially happened.

Now looking at Midoriya waving goodbye to this Mai-chan and a strawberry blonde haired girl. And they bombard him with questions.

"What the heck just happened!?"

"Who the hell was that!?"

"Is that your girlfriend!?"

Midoriya answers one by one. "First of all, some kid decided to diss the fact that we almost died, second of all, that's my adoptive host sister, Ishikawa Maiko, and third of all, no, she's not."

"Host sister?"

Midoriya blinked. "Right... I think I didn't tell you guys except for Shinsou, Iida, Uraraka, and Bakugou. I stayed with a host family for quirk training for the past six years, Mai-chan is part of said family."

They all nodded in understanding.

Kirishima took that moment to wonder. "What got you angry though?"

"Oh uh... something about what the kid said set me off. Like he didn't care if we died in the USJ then without knowing what it's like for us. And if I let the kid continue, the other students are going to follow his line of thought."

The class now understood.

He acted on behalf of the class so the class won't be antagonized.

Shinsou spoke up. "I think... I may know who that kid is. The guy that set Midoriya off."

The class's attention turned to Shinsou. Shinsou questions. "Are you all aware that U.A got a Psychological test?"

Fitting

"Psychological test?"

"It's a test to see whether you have the traits of being a hero or not." Shinsou explains as he talks. "So when I got my results for the entrance exam, it was tied with this kid. Can't remember but his name starts with M or something. Though pretty sure that it's that Mineta kid now. So I got asked to go to the campus again for this test along with the kid. We never saw each other in person though. The principal said that they usually don't do this before but they decided to make an exception this year."

He continues. "So long story short, I passed the psychological test because I was able to give answers that are befitting of a hero while the other kid failed. To be honest, I got wondering about what kind of person this other kid whose score I tied with is like." Shinsou then frowned.

"Seeing him in person now though, I already know why he failed. He acts as if he's the only one that failed and kept on whining about it. Too self-centered and too unheroic, if the locker incident that Maiko told us is any indication."

"Locker incident?"

"Something involving some glue that results in a bunch of people humiliated and scarred. All perpetrated by that Mineta guy."

The class winced.

"Maiko-chan said the guy is an open pervert..." Uraraka shivered at the thought. "I'm glad he isn't here though."

Midoriya adds. "His quirk got the potential to be someone on Aizawa-sensei or Midnight-sensei's level but... it's a shame about his personality. He's... very whiny. From what Mai-chan told me."

"Back to the topic." Shinsou reminds them. Continuing.

"Granted though, If I was in that class, a whiny person would be more tolerable than someone who is an open pervert 24/7, but that doesn't mean that I'm not irritated with him acting like a self-centered whiny shit. Keep it up and I'm going to think that he takes my failure for granted in favor of his own."

"So you mean, he has a potentially potent quirk but his personality is the obstacle to being a hero?"

Yaoyorozu wonders.

"Basically."

They ended the conversation there in favor of small talks before they went their own ways.

Guess

Uraraka and Iida had went back earlier and Shinsou had requested if he can sleep over, because his parents are away and he doesn't feel like he wants to head back to a lonely empty home.

The streets are empty when Shinsou called for him.

"Midoriya."

"Yeah?"

"Just wondering. You're... Leopard, aren't you?"

He's sure he's looking like a deer in the headlights now.

Shinsou adds. "Just a guess." He continued. "Neither of us in 1-A are as analytical as you or maybe Asui, Todoroki, and Yaoyorozu, but don't sell us short just for that. You probably don't show much on the outside, but I can see a moment of panic when I talked of what hand man said after you passed out."

Oh.

It's his eyes, isn't it?

"...What are you going to do if you were right?"

"Nothing. Just wondering if I was right or I was wrong."

He reluctantly admits. "...Yeah. I was."

"You're..."

"I don't like the fame I got for it Shinsou. That's why I'd rather want it to stay as a secret for myself."

"Is that one of the reasons why what Mineta said pissed you off?"

"...Yeah."

"Why?"

He explains.

"Take it like this, someone from your school got attacked and survived, they got famous for it that it got broadcasted on news channels, what would an outsider think of the whole situation until the victim spoke up?"

"A bunch of arrogant gloryhogs, possibly."

"Exactly." He elaborated further. "If I didn't say a thing, they'd keep thinking that. And will never see us, the class, as anything but that."

"...You sound like you've seen it happen."

"It takes seeing the bad side of fame to know one." He continues.

Shinsou stayed silent. He asked. "Mind if I ask you another question?"

"...Sure." He's not sure if he likes where this is going.

"Are you in the underground for fame?"

...Oh.

"...No." He denied, continuing. "I never want to be king then Shinsou. All I want at first was to get better at the control of my quirk. Then it just ended up changing to wanting to experience what it's like to be at the top and... I hate it. I may have gotten control of my quirk by two years, but getting the fame isn't worth it. The people watching... they all expect so much out of me, like I'm supposed to be the undefeatable king that becomes their symbol of that dark glory, it's tiring. I even had to force myself to put a lot of power to deal fatal injuries to my opponents because the people expect nothing less and all it got for me is my fellow fighters hating me and calling me something I'm not."

"Midoriya..."

"...So there you have it."

Shinsou's silence made him feel like he is likely judging him and wonder if that will change their friendship.

"...I can understand why you'd rather hide that." Shinsou adds. "I was called for something I'm not too. Lots of times before U.A."

"Shinsou..."

"Don't worry. I agree to keep it a secret." Shinsou asked him once more. "Oh yeah, are the teachers aware?"

"Pretty much. Principal Nedzu pulled the strings in letting me in U.A as an unofficial parole. At least those in charge of the Hero course anyway."

"...How?"

"It's... kinda complicated. I'm not exactly a villain... but I'm not a vigilante either. So the heroes in charge of my case then decided to ask Principal Nedzu and offered this."

Shinsou nods. "Well, thanks for the answers."

He clarifies. "I wasn't lying when I asked if I can sleep over at your home though."

"Asides wanting to clear your suspicion?"

Shinsou snorts. "Partly."

He snorts back as well. Though short lived, as he offered the insomniac a smile. "Thanks Shinsou."

"You're welcome."

* * *

 **This was very very late. So I apologize but to be honest, I lost my interest in continuing Middle Ground. That said, the fic will still continue.**  
 **Before you ask about why Mineta wasn't really out of the story, let me just say that I never planned to have Mineta completely out of the picture as detestable as he is. There's a reason why I didn't put up the Mineta Doesn't Exist tag even though Shinsou is in 1-A.**  
 **Personally, I don't even like Mineta, but I'm also tired of seeing how so many fics aren't even trying to give Mineta a character development of his own. So here's my attempt.**  
 **I placed Mineta in the General course because, Shinsou being in 1-A means someone else would have to be a representative of the general course, and I'd rather not make it Monoma.**  
 **There's a little shameless cameo of Kinoshita Ren, an OC from my Pre-canon fic, Alchemic Reaction. Though Alchemic Reaction's characterization of Ren would be far different.**  
 **So, uh, Lightningblade49 pointed out how no one but Bakugou would care about Izuku being Leopard but here's the thing. They wouldn't care, but Izuku would, fearing they'd change their opinion about him.**  
 **One of the titular themes I want to work on for this fic is, in trope speak, "Lonely At The Top".**  
 **In every famous person, there is a price, and not a very good one.**  
 **Izuku has been in the top once as Leopard and find being the best as empty and very pressuring. There's also the fact that when you fall, no one would be able to help. Such as in canon, after All Might's retirement, the heroes struggle to keep crime rate to a low. And the reason Izuku minded the idea of being discovered as the Leopard was the fear of being pressured and seen as the strong figure he isn't.**  
 **Everyone is only human. After all.**  
 **Updates of this fic will be progressively slow because I'm focusing myself on AO3 a whole lot more than I am focusing on here, so if you'd like a faster update, find me under the same name in AO3.**

 **Anyway, see you next time!**

 **\- torinokomachi**


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